B    3    flflfi 


ALASKAN  BIRD-LIFE 

AS 

Depicted  by  Many  Writers 


Edited  by 
ERNEST    INGERSOLL 


Published  by  the 

National  Association  of  Audubon  Societies 

New  York,    1914 


THE    RED    CROSSBILL 


ALASKAN   BIRD  LIFE 


AS 


Depicted  by  Many  Writers 

Edited   by 
ERNEST    INGERSOLL 


Seven  Plates  in  Colors  and  Other  Illustrations. 


Published  by  the 

NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  AUDUBON  SOCIETIES 

NEW    YORK,     1914 


-k 


?<& 


NATIONAL    ASSOCIATION    OF 
AUDUBON    SOCIETIES 

(FOUNDED  1901.   INCORPORATED  1905) 

For  the  Protection  of  Wild  Birds 
and  Animals 


OFFICERS 

WILLIAM   BUTCHER,   PRESIDENT 
FREDERIC  A.  LUCAS,   ACTING  PRESIDENT 
THEODORE  S.  PALMER,    IST  VICE-PRESIDENT 
T.  GILBERT  PEARSON,   SECRETARY 
JONATHAN  DWIGHT,  JR.,  TREASURER 
SAMUEL  T.   CARTER,   JR.,   ATTORNEY 


DIRECTORS 

WILLIAM   DUTCHER  W.    W.   GRANT 

THEODORE  S.    PALMER  GEORGE  B.  GRINNELL, 

FREDERIC  A.  Lue*g    -  *  '/'M/fBEL  OSGOOD  WRIGHT 

T.    GILBERT  EEARSON  r r  r    ,  r r        r  FRAPP  M.    CHAPMAN 

JONATHAN  D WIGHT*,  '  JR.  :  JV  A.*4  ALLEN 
CHARLES  SHELDON 


OFFICES 

1974  Broadway,     New  York  City 


INTRODUCTION 


THIS   volume  on  Alaskan  Bird-Life  has  been  prepared 
for  free  distribution    among   the    people    of    Alaska. 
This  has  been  done  in  pursuance  of  the  established 
policy  of  this  Association  to  seek,  by  all  available  measures, 
to  cultivate  on  the  part  of  the  general  American  public  a 
better  appreciation  of  the    value    to    mankind    of    our   wild 
birds  and  animals. 

In  offering  this  account  of  bird-life  in  Alaska,  we 
have  attempted  to  furnish  a  general  sketch  of  the  subject, 
rather  than  a  scientific  treatise.  The  greatest  care  has  been 
taken  as  to  accuracy.  All  of  the  writers  whose  contrib- 
utions are  here  combined,  and  given  a  certain  uniformity, 
are  men  of  recognized  authority  in  their  subject.  The 
purpose  primarily  in  view,  however,  is  educational;  to  give 
those  who  have  an  interest  in  the  animal  life  of  their 
country  additional  knowledge,  and  to  attract  to  the  subject 
the  attention  of  those  who,  largely  from  lack  of  inform- 
ation, have  neglected  what  others  have  found  to  be  a  most 
delightful  study. 

The  mere  enjoyment  derived  from  knowing  the  birds, 
recognizing  them  by  name,  and  observing  the  varying 
characteristics  and  habits  of  the  different  local  groups  and 
species,  offers  a  satisfactory  inducement  for  study,  and  is  an 
adequate  reward,  increasing  as  knowledge  progresses.  This 
alone  might  well  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  publishing  and 
distributing  a  book  of  this  kind.  The  Association  and  the 
Government  have  had,  however,  an  additional,  and  perhaps  an 
even  higher  purpose  in  view,  namely,  to  teach  the  people  of 
Alaska,  and  especially  the  boys  and  girls  there,  to  under- 
stand and  appreciate  the  very  important  place  which  the 
birds  of  this  country — or  of  any  country — occupy  in  the 
list  of  national  assets. 

To  impress  this  truth  on  the  minds  of  the  American 
people,  to  teach  those  who  are  ignorant  and  encourage 
those  who  are  wise,  and  to  form  and  enforce  legislation 


tending  to  the  conservation  of  this  valuable  part  of  the 
nation's  wealth,  is  the  mission  of  the  Audubon  Societies. 
It  is  with  that  purpose  in  view  that  this  and  other  public- 
ations of  the  National  Association  are  issued,  and  that  its 
extensive  work  in  the  schools  of  the  country  is  carried  on. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  all  of  the 
teachers  in  Alaska  into  whose  hands  this  volume  may  fall  will 
give  serious  attention  to  it,  and  make  use  of  its  contents  in 
their  school-work.  Examination  will  show  that  careful 
attention  has  been  paid  by  the  editor  to  the  diction,  fore- 
seeing that  the  book  was  likely  to  be  used  in  reading-classes, 
as  a  source  of  material  for  exercises  in  English  composition, 
and  in  other  ways ;  therefore  a  good  literary  style  was  desirable. 

Accompanying  the  colored  plates,  which  have  been  made 
by  capable  artists  with  critical  care  for  accuracy,  are  outlines 
of  the  figures,  which  a  child  may  color  with  his  paint-brush 
or  crayons,  either  from  a  living  bird,  or  from  the  portrait- 
plate.  No  better  way  has  been  devised  of  fixing  the  colors  of 
a  bird  in  the  mind  than  this;  and  in  many  schools  the 
coloring  of  these  outlines  takes  the  place  of  the  ordinary 
exercise  in  drawing. 

In  gathering  material  for  the  book  it  was  found  expedient 
to  conduct  some  original  field-work,  and  therefore  the 
Association,  cooperating  with  the  Government,  maintained  a 
naturalist,  Mr.  George  Willett,  at  the  St.  Lazaria  Bird  Reser- 
vation during  the  summer  of  1912,  to  study  and  report  upon 
the  wild-bird  life  of  that  vicinity. 

In  1913  a  similar  work  was  carried  on  at  the  Forrester 
Island  Government  Bird  Reservation  by  Dr.  Harold  Heath. 

The  expense  of  this  field-work,  as  well  as  the  cost  of 
publishing  this  book,  was  borne  by  a  member  of  this  Assoc- 
iation, whose  generosity  has  made  it  possible  to  accomplish 
many  useful  undertakings  along  similar  lines. 

T.    GILBERT   PEARSON, 

Secretary. 


APPROVAL  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES 
BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION 

In  area  Alaska  is  equal  to  New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  the 
two  Dakotas.  A  map  of  Alaska,  imposed  upon  a  map  of  the  United 
States  drawn  to  the  same  scale,  would  extend  from  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  to  San  Francisco.  The  coast-line  of  Alaska  is  longer  by 
many  thousands  of  miles  than  the  distance  around  the  world  at  the 
equator.  The  climate  of  Alaska  varies  from  the  soft,  even  climate  of 
southeastern  Alaska  and  the  Aleutian  Islands,  similar  to  that  of  the 
coast  of  Oregon  and  Washington,  to  the  uneven  climate  of  the  in- 
terior and  of  the  Northwest,  with  its  annual  swing  of  more  than  160 
degrees. 

We  have  heard  much  of  Alaska  within  the  last  two  decades — of 
its  mountains,  rivers,  and  plains ;  its  seas,  and  islands,  and  glaciers ; 
its  forests  and  tundras ;  its  fishing-waters  and  hunting-grounds ;  its 
gold  and  copper — but  we  know  little  about  its  abundant  and  varied 
bird-life;  and  the  people  of  Alaska,  particularly  the  white  people, 
seem  to  know  not  much  more.  How  varied  this  life  is  we  might  guess 
from  the  size,  location,  physical  features,  and  climatic  conditions  of 
the  country.  A  brief  visit  at  the  proper  season  of  the  year  gives  some 
idea  as  to  its  abundance. 

For  the  natives  who  have  learned  to  read  English,  for  the  white 
settlers,  for  the  numerous  visitors,  and  for  thousands  interested  in 
Alaska  and  all  parts  of  the  world,  there  has  been  need  of  such  a  brief, 
accurate,  and  readable  account  of  the  important  forms  of  bird-life 
in  the  various  parts  of  this  great  peninsula  as  that  presented  in  this 
book,  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  National  Association  of 
Audubon  Societies.  That  the  people  of  Alaska  may  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  inform  themselves  on  this  subject,  and  to  deal  with  it  in- 
telligently, this  Association  has  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  of  the  United  States  eight  thousand  copies  of  this 
book  for  distribution  in  Alaska.  Every  copy  should  bring-  some  one  a 
fuller  appreciation  of  the  beauty,  the  wealth,  and  the  greatness  of  this 
country. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION    3 

APPROVAL  BY  COMMISSIONER  P.  P.  CLAXTON 5 

SOUTH-COAST  DISTRICT   , 9 

South-coast  water-birds,  10;  larger  land-birds,  13;  sparrows  and  small 
birds,  15. 

WOODED  INTERIOR  DISTRICT  16 

Shore-birds  and  game-birds,  17;  falcons,  eagles  and  owls,  18;  woodland 
species,  20;  finches  and  small  songsters,  22. 

ARCTIC   COASTAL  DISTRICT    26 

Asiatic  visitors,  27;  braving  an  arctic  winter,  28;  bird-life  of  the  Sea 
Islands,  32 ;  bird-year  at  St.  Michaels,  34 ;  spring  and  summer  on  the 
tundras,  37;  notes  by  the  editor,  43. 

ALEUTIAN   DISTRICT    45 

Land-birds  of  the  Aleutian  chain,  47. 

THE  TUFTED  PUFFIN   49 

THE  CRESTED  AUKLET  53 

THE  EMPEROR  GOOSE   57 

THE  HUDSONIAN  CURLEW 62 

THE  WILLOW  PTARMIGAN    64 

THE  ALASKAN  LONGSPUR  .  68 


COLORED  PLATES 

CROSSBILLS Frontispiece 

ALASKAN  LONGSPUR  17 

WILLOW  PTARMIGAN 31 

HUDSONIAN  CURLEW  41 

TUFTED   PUFFIN    49 

CRESTED  AUKLET   55 

EMPEROR  GOOSE    59 

ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  THE  TEXT 

BREEDING  COLONY  OF  CALIFORNIA  MURRES  8 

MAP  OF  FAUNAL  DISTRICTS  IN  ALASKA   9 

PALLAS' s  MURRES  ON  BOGOSLOF  ISLAND  >  32 

PACIFIC  KITTIWAKES  ON  WALRUS  ISLAND  38 

CORMORANTS  ON  WALRUS  ISLAND   46 

AUKLETS  ON  PRIBILOF  ISLANDS  .  54 


ALASKAN    BIRD -LIFE 

General  Characteristics 

% 

The  bird-population  of  Alaska  is  large,  varied,  and  interesting, 
despite  the  remote  and  northern  situation  of  the  country.  This  is 
possible  because  it  has  a  warm  and  moist  summer,  although  a  short 
one,  favoring  the  rapid  and  copious  growth  of  vegetation,  including 
extensive  forests;  and  because  the  adjoining  seas  abound  in  food 
naturally  attractive  to  many  kinds  of  birds. 

Any  map  of  Alaska  showing  average  weather  conditions  makes 
plain  the  fact  that  the  lines  (isotherms)  which  connect  places  in  North 
America  having  the  same  average  summer  warmth  swing  up  in  the 
west  far  toward  the  north,  proving — what  is  plain  to  all  who  live  there 
—that  a  climate  as  mild  in  midsummer  as  that  of  the  Great  Lakes 
region  prevails  much  farther  toward  the  north  on  the  Pacific  than 
on  the  Atlantic  slope  of  the  continent. 

The  amount  and  character  of  the  bird-population  in  any  region 
depend  greatly  on  its  having  a  climate  favorable  to  birds  at  the  season 
when  they  are  hatching  and  rearing  their  nestlings,  not  only  because 
most  birds  are  creatures  of  mild  rather  than  rough  conditions,  but 
because  a  warm  and  moist  climate  furnishes  far  more  food,  both  ani- 
mal and  vegetable,  than  does  a  cold  or  an  arid  one.  The  fact  that 
a  temperate  summer  climate  extends  as  far  northwest  as  central  Alaska 
therefore  allows  the  land-birds  to  spread  their  area  of  summer  resi- 
dence much  farther  in  that  direction  than  they  are  able  to  do  on  the 
bleak  northeastern  side  of  the  continent.  For  this  reason  Alaska  has 
many  kinds  of  birds  well  known  in  the  United  States. 

Another  reason  why  Alaska  has  a  large  bird-population  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  long  trough  between  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierras  and  northern  coast  ranges  form 
natural  and  unobstructed  pathways  for  the  migratory  birds  of  the  west 
as  they  annually  travel  northward  in  spring  and  back  again  in  autumn. 
Another  convenient  and  natural  approach  for  migratory  birds  is  from 
western  Canada  down  the  upper  Yukon  Valley ;  and  probably  most  of 
the  small  birds  of  the  interior  go  and  come  by  this  river-valley 
route.  When  to  this  mingled  company  is  added  the  group  of  birds — 
principally  sea-fowl — that  reside  in  the  Territory  all  the  year  round 
it  is  manifest  that  the  bird-population  of  Alaska  is  not  only  extensive, 
but  is  more  representative  of  the  whole  of  North  America  than  that 
of  any  other  part  of  the  continent. 


Faunal  Districts  in  Alaska 

If  Alaska  were  a  great  plain  it  would  have  a  substantially  uniform 
climate,  gradually  colder  from  south  to  north.  However,  the  country 
is  embroidered  with  ranges  of  lofty  mountains,  which  divide  it  into 
several  regions,  each  distinct  in  climate,  and  consequently  distinct  in 
plant  and  animal.  Four  of  these  districts  may  be  marked  off  as  below : 
and  it  is  important  to  keep  them  in  mind  if  one  wishes  to  form  a 
clear  idea  of  Alaskan  ornithology,  for  each  has  its  own  characteristic 
bird-life. 

A.  THE  SOUTH-COAST  DISTRICT. 

B.  THE  WOODED-INTERIOR  DISTRICT. 

C.  THE  ARCTIC-COAST  DISTRICT. 

D.  THE  ALEUTIAN  DISTRICT. 

These  districts  might  be  reviewed  in  any  order;  but  that  of  the 
islands  and  shore  of  the  southern  coast  has  been  placed  first  because 
it  is  the  best  known,  the  most  easily  accessible,  and  the  most  populous 
part  of  Alaska. 


A    BREEDING    COLONY    OF    CALIFORNIA    MURRES 
From  a  Photograph  by  A.   C.   Bent 

8 


SOUTH-COAST  DISTRICT  (A) 

The  southern  border  of  Alaska  consists  of  a  ragged  strip  of  coast 
indented  by  deep,  fiord-like  bays  and  by  narrow  channels  that  so 
intersect  as  to  cut  off  hundreds  of  islands.  At  varying  distances, 
but  never  far  from  the  ocean,  stand  lofty  mountains  capped  with 
snow-fields  and  glaciers,  protecting  the  coastal  valleys  and  islands 
from  the  cold  north  and  northeast  winds.  The  Coast  Range  continues 
northward  from  British  Columbia  as  far  as  Icy  Strait  and  Lynn 
Canal,  beyond  which  the  massive  uplift  of  the  St.  Elias  Alps  presents 


Sketch -Map  of  Alaska,  Showing  Areas  of  Faunal  Districts  (see  page  8), 
and  the  Situations  of  Federal  Bird  Reservations  (see  page  72) 

hardly  more  than  ice-cliffs  to  the  sea  until  the  mouth  of  Copper  River 
is  reached.  Thence  westward  a  marginal  coast  of  considerable  width, 
cut  by  many  rivers  and  inlets,  fringed  with  peninsulas  and  islands, 
and  walled  by  mountains,  extends  to  the  base  of  the  Alaska  Peninsula. 
This  long  coastal  belt  receives  from  the  prevailing  westerly 
winds  the  warmth  and  moisture  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  shed  upon  it 
copiously  by  the  chilling  effect  of  the  mountains,  against  which  the 
clouds  incessantly  drift.  Hence  all  this  district,  except  the  glacial 


headlands  of  the  St.  Elias  Range,  is  covered  with  forests,  valley- 
swamps  and  mountain-meadows,  which  reach  far  higher  on  the  sea- 
ward front  than  on  the  interior  slopes  of  the  ranges.  The  woods  are 
mainly  of  evergreen  trees,  and  toward  the  south  they  grow  to  an 
astonishing  height;  but  in  the  more  open  places  are  to  be  found  many 
kinds  of  deciduous  trees,  berry-bearing  shrubs,  and  a  rich  flora  of 
flowering  plants  and  mosses.  The  country  is  frequented  by  mammals 
in  large  variety,  from  bears  to  mice,  and  the  rivers  and  inlets  abound 
in  fish.  Considering  this  warm  and  humid  climate,  often  really  hot 
in  summer,  and  the  plenitude  of  food,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn 
that  birds  are  numerous  here,  embracing,  in  fact,  if  migrants  are 
included,  nearly  the  whole  avifauna  of  Alaska. 

The  warmly  moist  climate  of  this  coast  has  the  effect  of  intensi- 
fying and  making  darker  the  colors  of  the  fur  of  mammals  and  the 
plumage  of  the  birds  and  butterflies  that  spend  their  summers  there. 
"Pale  browns,"  Nelson  observes,  "become  rich  rufous,  or  rusty  red, 
and  grays  become  dark  brown,  with  corresponding  changes  in  other 
colors."  Hence  a  large  number  of  the  birds  of  this  district  are  distin- 
guished by  varietal  names. 

South-Coast  Water-Birds 

Beginning,  as  is  customary,  at  the  foot  of  the  scale  of  organiza- 
tion, the  first  birds  to  be  mentioned  are  the  grebes,  of  which  two 
species  may  be  met  with  in  this  district — the  red-necked  and  the 
horned.  Grebes,  or  divers,  are  water-birds  with  the  general  appear- 
ance of  ducks,  but  their  bills  are  small  and  narrow,  and  their  feet, 
instead  of  being  fully  webbed,  have  the  toes  flattened  and  broadened 
into  paddles.  The  legs  are  set  so  far  back  that  it  is  difficult  for  grebes 
to  walk  upon  land,  but  they  are  among  the  most  expert  of  swimmers 
and  divers,  and  often,  when  trying  to  avoid  observation,  will  quietly 
submerge  the  whole  body,  leaving  only  the  inconspicuous  head  out 
of  water.  They  feed  chiefly  on  fish  and  small  aquatic  creatures,  but 
also  nibble  at  succulent  plants.  Their  nests  are  mere  rafts  of  reed- 
stalks,  usually  afloat  among  the  rushes  of  some  inland  pond,  and  the 
few  greenish-white  eggs  lie  in  a  sodden  bed. 

Loons  are  near  relatives  of  the  grebes,  but  are  larger,  and  more 
strongly  marked  in  dark  colors  checkered  with  white ;  they  feed  on 
fish  and  lay  two  eggs  in  a  slight  hollow  on  the  bank  of  a  river  or  lake. 
Three  species  come  here:  the  common  great  northern  diver,  the  red- 
throated  diver,  and  the  Pacific  loon. 

10 


The  cliffs  and  ragged  islands  of  this  southern  coast  of  Alaska 
harbor  many  members  of  those  quaint  tribes  of  small  sea-birds,  the 
puffins,  murres,  and  others  of  the  auk  family,  which,  however,  are 
better  represented  on  the  northern  coasts,  and  are  described  hereafter 
by  Mr.  Nelson  and  Mr.  Bent.  Among  those  breeding  in  crowded 
colonies  south  of  the  Aleutian  islands  are  the  tufted  puffin  (see  page 
49),  the  rhinoceros,  Cassin's,  and  the  crested  auklets,  the  marbled, 
ancient,  and  Kittlitz's  murrelets,  and  the  Californian  and  the  black 
guillemots.  The  pigeon,  paroquet,  and  least  auklets  appear  only  as 
migrants  in  winter. 

George  Willett  notes  that  the  burrows  of  the  rhinoceros  auklets, 
birds  found  by  him  to  be  common  about  Sitka  Sound,  and  nesting 
in  a  numerous  colony  on  St.  Lazaria  Island  in  company  with  many 
tufted  puffins,  are  entirely  different  in  situation  and  construction 
from  those  of  any  other  of  the  birds  dwelling  there.  Their  burrows 
are  much  larger  than  those  of  the  petrels,  and  longer  than  those 
of  the  puffins,  from  which  they  differ  also  in  situation.  St.  Lazaria 
Island  is  a  Federal  bird-reservation,  and  the  auklet  colony  "is  well  up 
toward  the  top  of  the  island  among  the  timber,  and  the  burrows  fre- 
quently run  under  logs  and  among  the  roots  of  trees." 

Gulls  are  numerous,  as  might  be  expected  along  such  a  coast,  but 
no  tern  is  known  east  of  Kadiak  Island,  and  even  there  the  arctic 
tern  alone  represents  this  fine  group  of  diminutive  gulls.  Those 
powerful  sea-hawks,  the  jaegers — both  the  parasitic  and  the  long-tailed 
— visit  this  coast  in  winter,  but  keep  well  out  at  sea,  harassing  every 
bird  that  fishes.  Winter  gulls,  whose  summer  home  is  in  the  north, 
are  the  rare  ivory  gull,  the  glaucous  gull  or  burgomaster,  and  Sabine's 
or  the  fork-tailed  gull.  Resident  here  in  summer,  nesting  on  both 
sandy  islets  and  rock-ledges,  are  the  glaucous-winged  gull,  the  big, 
world-wandering  herring  gull,  with  its  snowy  head  and  black  wing- 
tips,  the  short-billed,  and  the  familiar  black-headed,  white-tailed, 
Bonaparte's  gull. 

Gulls'  nests  are  very  simple  structures — sometimes  nothing  at 
all — and  large  colonies  often  breed  together  both  on  the  sea  shore 
and  on  the  beaches  of  inland  lakes.  Their  eggs  are  blotched  and 
marbled  with  various  tints,  from  lavender  to  deep  red-brown. 

Other  oceanic  birds,   seen   by  voyagers,  but  rarely  near  shore, 
are  the  shooty  shearwater,  Fisher's,  the  fork-tailed,  and  Leach's  pe- 
ll 


trels — adventurous  northern  representatives  of  several  great  tropical 
families.  The  last  two  reside  in  extensive  breeding-companies  on  the 
heights  of  St.  Lazaria,  where  their  young  are  hatched  beneath  the 
grass-roots  in  midsummer. 

With  a  mention  of  the  white-breasted  and  the  violet-green  cor- 
morants, that  breed  in  large  numbers  on  the  westernmost  islands,  we 
come  to  the  end  of  the  list  of  sea-birds,  and  turn  to  that  of  the  fresh- 
water species.  Many  sea-birds,  which  used  to  nest  numerously  near 
Sitka,  now  are  rare  there,  owing  mainly,  it  is  believed,  to  the  de- 
struction of  their  eggs  or  young  by  crows  and  ravens. 

Ducks  are  not  so  numerous  in  this  district  as  in  the  interior  or 
on  the  tundras.  Of  the  mergansers,  the  only  one  regularly  seen  is 
the  red-breasted,  the  other  being  scarce.  Mallards,  green-winged 
teals,  Barrow's  golden-eyes  (whistlewings),  the  scaups,  harlequins, 
buffleheads  (butter-balls),  and  the  scoters,  appear  to  be  the  only 
ducks  nesting  at  all  frequently  near  the  coast;  and  few  except  the 
pintail,  scaup,  old-squaw,  scoters,  and  eiders,  occur  in  winter.  The 
white-winged  scoter  is  the  most  abundant  of  the  surf-ducks,  and  is 
numerous  on  salt  water  all  through  the  year. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  geese,  the  white-fronted  and  the 
white-cheeked  alone  nesting  on  the  southern  coast,  while  the  snow- 
goose,  Hutchins's,  and  the  cackling  goose,  the  brant  and  some  others, 
are  occasionally  seen  in  migrations  or  during  the  winter.  The  climate 
and  other  conditions  are  too  unfavorable  to  induce  or  permit  such 
wading-birds  as  herons,  bitterns,  rails,  and  gallinules,  to  dwell  in  any 
part  of  Alaska,  except  that  the  Pacific-coast  variety  of  the  great  blue 
heron  visits  the  southern  part  of  the  Territory. 

The  situation  is  a  little  better  for  the  shore-birds,  which  can 
pick  up  food  along  the  margins  of  sheltered  bays,  especially  west  of 
the  Copper  River;  but  such  of  these  as  are  seen  in  the  course  of  a 
year  are  principally  autumnal  migrants.  Only  Wilson's  snipe,  the 
Aleutian,  Pribilof,  and  least  sandpipers,  the  greater  yellowlegs,  and 
the  wandering  tattler,  halt  to  rear  their  young  south  of  the  Yukon 
Valley.  Nests  of  the  black  oyster-catchers,  however,  have  been  dis- 
covered near  Prince  William  Sound.  The  northern  phalarope  is  com- 
mon on  salt  water  at  all  seasons. 


12 


The  Larger  Land-Birds. 

The  only  game-bird  of  the  region  is  the  white-tailed  ptarmigan, 
and  its  dwelling-place  is  far  up  the  slopes  of  the  mountains.  Neither 
partridge  nor  pigeon  has  been  noted,  except  one  record  of  a  mourning 
dove. 

Birds  of  prey,  however,  find  plentiful  means  of  living,  and  abound 
throughout  the  coastal  district.  The  almost  cosmopolitan  marsh 
hawk  shows  itself  occasionally,  and  probably  rears  its  young  among 
the  reeds  margining  one  or  another  of  the  many  lakelets.  The  sharp- 
shinned  hawk  is  there,  and  will  be  likely  to  increase  as  civilization 
extends  its  conquest  to  the  wilderness.  The  western  goshawk  and 
the  roughleg  are  to  be  found,  both  nesting  in  tall  trees.  The  western 
redtail  is  seen  occasionally  in  the  south,  usually  hunting  for  mice 
about  timber-line  on  the  mountains.  The  bald  eagle,  according  to 
Willett,  is  the  most  common  raptorial  bird  of  the  coast  south  of  St. 
Elias;  it  is  also  conspicuously  present  elsewhere  in  Alaska.  Mr. 
Willett  offers  the  following  interesting  note  upon  it  at  Sitka : 

The  nest  is  always  placed  near  salt  water,  all  those  noted  being  in  tall 
coniferous  trees.  The  birds  seen  in  the  high  mountains  during  the  summer 
were  nearly  all  immature.  The  young  leave  the  nest  late  in  August.  Accord- 
ing to  James  Brightman,  the  eggs  are  deposited  in  late  April  and  early  May. 
During  the  early  summer  these  birds  apparently  subsist  to  a  considerable 
extent  on  fawns.  Several  dead  eagles  examined  at  this  season  were  gorged 
with  fawn-meat,  and  the  claws  were  covered  with  hair.  The  hunters  of  the 
region  claim  that  the  eagle  is  the  worst  enemy  the  deer  have,  and  kill  them 
at  every  opportunity.  In  the  early  fall,  when  the  salmon  are  running  up 
the  streams  to  spawn,  these  birds  feed  largely  on  fish,  and  they  may  be  seen 
in  numbers  around  every  salmon-stream.  A  nest  examined  in  St.  Lazaria 
Island  in  August,  1912,  contained  the  remains  of  a  great  number  of  tufted 
puffins  and  young  glaucous-winged  gulls. 

The  golden  eagle  also  frequents  the  sea-fronting  cliffs,  but  is 
more  familiar  westward;  also  both  forms  of  the  duck  hawk.  The 
pigeon  hawk  (of  the  "black"  variety)  and  the  fish  hawk  complete 
the  summer  list,  but  both  are  rare. 

Of  the  owls,  the  short-eared  finds  excellent  nesting-places  in  the 
thick  woods,  where  also  Kennicott's  screech-owl  is  heard,  but  neither 
is  common.  Of  the  large  owls,  two  are  resident — the  dusky  variety 
of  the  great  horned  owl  and  the  gray  owl.  Both  the  snowy  and 
the  hawk  owls  are  to  be  found  in  winter  among  the  mountains. 


13 


The  kingfisher  flourishes  in  a  region  where  streams  and  fishes 
are  so  plentiful ;  and  of  woodpeckers  local  varieties  of  the  downy,  the 
hairy,  and  the  three-toed,  a  sapsucker,  and  the  northwestern  flicker, 
are  to  be  noted.  There  is  also  a  hummingbird  (see  page  20),  and 
Vaux's  swift ;  but  the  latter  is  rare. 

Next  comes  the  great  order  of  Perching  Birds.  Three  flycatchers 
have  been  listed,  but  the  western  pewee  alone  is  numerous.  The 
magpie  is  seen  irregularly,  and  seems  to  be  less  common  than  for- 
merly. Steller's  jay  is  a  numerous  resident,  his  gaudy  plumage  flash- 
ing before  the  eyes  of  the  travelers  along  all  the  shores,  and  in  clear- 
ings and  villages.  Crows  are  common,  near  the  coast  and  on  the 
islands,  robbing  the  nests  of  the  sea-birds  as  long  as  any  eggs  or 
young  are  to  be  obtained;  and  at  other  seasons,  as  Willett  tells 
us,  "they  gather  in  large  flocks  along  the  beaches  at  low  tide,  feeding 
on  shell-fish  and  crustaceans,  and  when  the  tide  is  in  scratching 
among  the  drift-kelp  along  the  shore."  The  fish  crow  has  similar 
habits,  and  may  be  seen  in  throngs,  sometimes,  about  the  fishing- 
stages  and  canneries,  feeding  upon  offal.  Still  more  conspicuous  and 
generally  distributed  is  the  raven,  of  which  Mr.  Willett  gives  us  a 
graphic  picture : 

.  .  .  plentiful  in  the  streets  of  Sitka,  and  on  the  near-by  beaches,  feeding 
on  refuse  and  carrion.  They  were  also  noted  on  the  tops  of  the  mountain 
ranges,  where  they  were  frequently  seen  playing  on  the  snow-banks  and 
glaciers.  They  would  dig  holes  in  the  snow,  and,  lying  down  In  them,  would 
scratch  the  snow  over  their  backs  with  bill  and  wings,  the  coolness  secured 
in  this  way  evidently  affording  them  great  enjoyment.  They  frequently 
follow  the  eagles  when  the  latter  are  hunting,  probably  in  hopes  of  securing 
a  share  of  the  prey.  On  one  occasion  I  had  killed  a  deer  and  left  it  for  a 
couple  of  hours.  On  my  return  the  eyes  and  a  part  of  the  intestines  had  been 
picked  out  by  the  ravens.  .  .  .  The  raven  is  very  fond  of  clams,  abalones, 
sea-urchins,  and  other  shell-fish,  which  are  secured  from  the  rocks  at  low 
tide.  The  shells  are  frequently  found  high  up  on  the  hillsides,  where  they 
have  been  carried  by  the  ravens.  On  one  occasion  Merrill  watched  a  number 
of  birds  standing  around  a  hog  that  was  digging  clams  from  the  mud.  As 
fast  as  the  clams  were  brought  to  the  surface  they  were  appropriated  by 
the  ravens. 

The  handsomely  marked  form  of  the  nutcracker  may  well  reward 
the  keen-eyed  observer,  but  thus  far  it  has  been  seen,  or  at  least  has 
been  recorded,  only  once  inside  the  bounds  of  Alaska.  The  only 
blackbird  is  the  wide-ranging  rusty  grackle,  and  that  is  uncommon. 
No  other  grackles,  orioles,  meadowlarks,  or  bobolinks  make  music  in 
that  region  of  dense  forests  and  rainy  skies. 

14 


Sparrows  and  Other  Small  Birds 

The  finch  tribe  is  well  fitted  to  such  surroundings,  and  is  largely 
represented  in  southern  Alaska.  The  pine  grosbeak  is  plentiful,  espe- 
cially in  autumn,  the  Kadiak  race  of  this  species  breeding  along  the 
coast  from  the  base  of  the  Alaska  Peninsula  eastward  as  far,  at  least, 
as  Glacier  Bay,  making  its  nest  in  spruce  trees.  Crossbills  are  seen 
irregularly,  but  no  doubt  breed.  Rosy  finches  make  their  home  on 
the  higher  mountain-slopes,  and  redpolls  rear  their  young  in  the 
higher  woods. 

Along  the  coast,  in  open,  grassy  places,  are  to  be  seen  and  heard 
in  summer  the  western  savanna  sparrow,  Gambel's  whitethroat,  its 
cousin,  the  golden-crowned,  and  the  western  tree-sparrow.  Of  the 
snow-birds  (Junco),  both  the  typical  and  the  Oregon  forms  are  to 
be  found,  nesting  on  brushy  hillsides  at  the  roots  of  bushes ;  while 
several  subspecies  of  the  highly  variable  song  sparrow  are  present, 
but  much  scattered  in  distribution.  The  rusty  song  sparrow  occurs 
only  at  the  extreme  southern  extremity  of  the  Territory;  the  sooty 
variety  is  numerous  only  as  far  north  as  Glacier  Bay ;  the  Yakutat 
song  sparrow  belongs  to  the  chilly  front  of  the  Mt.  Fairweather 
range,  the  Kenai  to  the  Kenai  Peninsula;  the  Kadiak  to  the  island  of 
that  name  and  the  neighboring  mainland,  and  the  Aleutian  variety 
to  the  Alaska  Peninsula  and  certain  of  the  Aleutian  Islands. 

Forbush's  sparrow,  a  variety  of  Lincoln's,  and  two  races  of  fox 
sparrows,  are  scattered  in  favorable  brushy  or  grassy  places  all  along 
the  coast  to  the  Alaska  Peninsula.  One  of  the  fox  sparrows  (Town- 
send's)  is  a  brilliant  singer. 

The  barn  swallow  (a  few  of  which  still  place  their  nests  on  the 
cliffs  of  the  outlying  islands)  gladdens  the  villagers  along  the  coast 
for  a  few  weeks  in  midsummer;  and  tree  swallows  nest  in  old  wood- 
pecker-holes in  the  dead  stubs  in  the  woods,  coming  down  to  the  shore 
after  their  young  are  able  to  fly,  and  soon  drifting  southward. 

Few  warblers,  of  course,  appear  upon  the  list  of  this  .part  of  the 
country.  The  lutescent  variety  of  the  orange-crown,  the  Alaska 
yellow  warbler,  Townsend's  warbler,  and  the  pileolated  variety  of 
the  blackcap,  are  all  so  far  noted.  The  dipper  is  to  be  found  on 
almost  every  stream. 

The  large  family  of  wrens  and  thrashers  is  represented  only  by 
the  winter  wren  in  its  western  variety;  but  a  separate  race  inhabits 
Kadiak  Island.  Brown  creepers  are  fairly  common  along  streams, 
and  there  are  two  chickadees — the  long-tailed  and  the  chestnut- 

15 


backed — and  two  kinglets.  As  to  the  kinglets  Grinnell  makes  some 
interesting  observations;  he  found  the  golden-crowned  common 
everywhere  about  Sitka,  especially  in  the  dense  fir  thickets  along  the 
streams.  He  says : 

On  June  22,  as  I  was  carefully  picking  my  way  through  a  clump  of  firs, 
I  chanced  upon  six  of  these  mites  of  birds  sitting  in  a  row  close  together 
on  a  twig;  but  when  one  of  the  parents  appeared  and  discovered  me,  her 
single  sharp  note  scattered  them  in  all  directions  with  a  chorus  of  squeaks, 
and  then  in  a  moment  all  was  quiet  and  not  one  to  be  seen,  although  all  were 
probably  watching  me  intently  within  a  radius  of  ten  feet. 

Of  the  thrush  family  this  coastal  region  has  the  russet-backed 
and  the  Alaska  hermit.  The  western  variety  of  the  robin  is  present  in 
large  numbers,  and  with  the  familiar  disposition  he  shows  in  the  East ; 
also  the  Oregon,  or  varied,  robin — the  last  of  the  list  of  those  birds 
known  or  believed  to  rear  their  young  on  the  seaward  side  of  the 
mountains. 

WOODED-INTERIOR  DISTRICT   (B) 

The  principal  sources  of  information  upon  the  birds  of  the  in- 
terior of  Alaska  are  the  Report  by  Edward  W.  Nelson,  hitherto 
quoted,  and  the  account  by  Dr.  Louis  B.  Bishop,  in  North  American 
Fauna,  No.  19,  of  a  "biological  reconnoissance  of  Alaska"  made  in  the 
summer  of  1889.  Dr.  Bishop  states  that  about  a  third  of  the  birds 
noted  by  him  had  their  center  of  distribution  in  the  east,  and  mi- 
grated to  Alaska  along  the  Yukon  Valley. 

The  account  of  the  birds  of  this  district,  which  embraces  the  for- 
ested part  of  the  Territory  north  of  the  Alaskan  Mountains,  begins, 
as  usual,  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  in  classification,  so  that — as  sea- 
birds  are  absent — the  first  to  be  mentioned  are  the  fresh-water  ducks. 
The  American  and  red-breasted  mergansers,  the  mallard,  shoveler, 
baldpate,  pintail,  scaup,  American  goldeneye  or  whistlewing,  burfle- 
head,  old-squaw,  harlequin,  both  of  the  teals,  and  the  surf-scoter,  all 
occur,  breeding  in  suitable  places ;  but  the  green-winged  teal  and  the 
pintail  are  by  far  the  most  widely  distributed  and  most  often  en- 
countered. The  breeding-habits  of  several  of  them,  typical  of  all, 
have  been  described  by  Mr.  Nelson  (pages  40,  41)  as  he  learned  them 
on  the  coastal  tundras. 

Of  the  geese,  while  all  species  are  seen  during  their  migrations, 
the  brown,  or  Hutchins's  goose,  is  most  numerous  in  summer  in 
the  interior,  where  they  are  said  to  resort  to  the  hilltops  for  nesting- 
sites.  Dall  reports  the  white-fronted  goose,  however,  breeding  gre- 
gariously all  along  the  Yukon,  depositing  their  eggs  in  hollows 

16 


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scooped  out  of  the  sand.  The  Canada  goose  is  there,  too,  but  is  rare. 
The  cackling  goose  also  abounds  along  the  larger  rivers  and  lakes. 
The  whistling  swan  nests  all  over  the  interior,  where  the  trumpeter 
also  is  occasionally  met. 

Shore-birds  and  Game-birds 

The  climate  and  character  of  the  country  are  unfavorable  for  the 
large  waders,  and  the  only  representative  of  the  group  in  this  district 
is  the  little  brown  or  sandhill  crane,  which  seems  to  be  more  common 
in  the  valley  of  the  Porcupine  River  than  anywhere  else. 

Of  the  small  waders,  however,  many  species  are  to  be  enumerated. 
The  red  phalarope  nests  in  the  marshes  of  the  interior,  as  on  the  coast, 
and  Wilson's,  miscalled  the  English  snipe,  and  the  long-billed  do- 
witcher  (more  common  and  widely  distributed)  along  the  Yukon  near 
the  international  boundary;  but  other  small  waders  are  rare  there  ex- 
cept the  familiar  spotted  sandpiper,  or  tip-up.  "Hardly  a  day 
passed,"  Bishop  notes,  "without  our  seeing  many  along  the  shore 
[of  the  Yukon],  or  skimming  over  the  river.  The  least,  and  the 
semipalmated,  and  the  western  sandpipers  are  present  in  the  breed- 
ing-season, but  are  usually  rare.  Whether  the  Hudsonian  godwit  and 
the  pectoral  sandpiper  breed  inland  seems  doubtful.  The  solitary 
sandpiper,  lesser  yellowlegs,  wandering  tattler  and  upland  plover  are 
also  recorded  as  breeders,  but  probably  nowhere  in  abundance. 

Plovers  are  more  fitted  to  the  inland  conditions,  and  most  of  the 
northern  species  make  their  home  along  the  Yukon — among  them 
the  golden,  the  black-bellied  and  the  semipalmated,  but  the  last  is  the 
one  most  commonly  obtained  by  sportsmen.  The  surf-bird  also  is 
credited  with  a  place  in  this  district. 

Turning  to  the  grouse,  both  varieties  of  the  Canada  or  spruce 
grouse,  or  fool-hen,  resort  in  summer  to  breeding-places  all  over  the 
interior  of  the  Territory,  and  are  resident,  as  a  rule,  wherever  found. 
"At  Anvik  on  the  lower  Yukon,"  according  to  Nelson,  "it  is  rather 
common,  and  inhabits  the  mixed  forests  of  spruce  and  deciduous  trees, 
whence  it  has  the  habit  of  coming  out  on  the  gravelly  river-bank, 
early  in  the  morning,  during  pleasant  weather  in  spring  and  sum- 
mer." Closely  associated  with  it  in  extent  and  station  is  the  gray 
variety  of  the  ruffed  grouse. 

The  willow  ptarmigan  is  also  widely  distributed  as  a  resident 
throughout  the  year,  but  most  commonly  toward  the  northern  part  of 
the  forested  region.  "In  autumn,"  to  quote  Nelson  again,  "they  unite 
in  great  flocks  and  migrate  south  to  the  sheltered  banks  of  the  Kus- 

17 


kokwim  and  Yukon  rivers,  and  their  numerous  tributaries.  . 
Early  in  June  ...  the  first  eggs  are  laid:  by  June  20  and  25 
the  downy  young  are  usually  out,  and  when  approached  the  female 
crouches  close  to  the  ground  among  her  brood.  When  she  sees  it  is 
impossible  to  escape  notice  she  rolls  and  tumbles  away  as  if  mortally 
injured,  and  thus  tries  to  lead  one  from  her  chicks.  At  the  same  time 
the  young  try  to  escape  by  running  away  in  different  directions." 

The  rock  ptarmigan,  in  its  typical  form,  is  also  a  common  sum- 
mer bird  on  mountain  ranges  all  over  the  Territory,  as  is  the  sharp- 
tailed  grouse;  the  latter,  however,  does  not  extend  its  range  west- 
ward beyond  the  Ramparts  of  the  Yukon,  and  it  frequents  only  the 
more  open  parts  of  the  country. 

Falcons,  Eagles,  and  Owls 

Birds  of  prey  find  a  congenial  home  in  these  northern  forests, 
which  abound  in  small  mammals  and  birds  upon  which  they  may 
feed  throughout  the  year;  for  when  the  winter's  snows  bury  the 
mice,  lemmings,  and  ground-squirrels  in  their  underground  homes,  the 
hardy  rabbits,  and  the  ever-present  ptarmigans  and  snow-birds  on 
the  ground,  and  grosbeaks,  jays,  finches,  and  other  winged  quarry 
in  the  trees  suffice  to  feed  the  few  owls  and  falcons  that  remain,  since 
most  of  the  hawks,  at  least,  migrate  southward  in  autumn. 

The  marsh  hawk  is  common  wherever  open,  swampy  places  at- 
tract it.  The  sharp-shin  is  present  also,  and  nests  in  spruces  along 
the  rivers.  The  goshawk  was  seen  by  Bishop ;  and  Nelson  says  it  is 
a  characteristic  bird  of  the  northern  interior,  breeding  nearly  to  the 
Arctic  Circle.  The  skins  of  these,  and  of  some  other  small  hawks, 
used  to  be  highly  prized  among  the  redmen  of  the  region  for  orna- 
mental purposes.  The  western  redtails  and  the  roughleg  are  com- 
monly seen,  but  Swainson's  hawk  is  rare.  Bishop  and  Osgood  con- 
sider the  redtail  the  more  abundant. 

Both  kinds  of  eagles  inhabit  all  the  wooded  parts  of  Alaska;  and 
occasionally  the  bald  eagle  remains  here  throughout  the  winter, 
when  most  of  its  race  migrate  to  warmer  regions,  where  streams  are 
free  from  ice.  The  gray  gyrfalcon  is  not  numerous,  but  is  resident ;  and 
the  duck  hawk  is  found  as  far  north  as  the  limit  of  trees,  and  nests 
numerously  along  the  Yukon  and  other  rivers,  laying,  its  eggs  so 
promptly  that  the  young  are  able  to  fly  early  in  June.  Bishop  notes 
that  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  eastern  boundary  these  hawks  may  be 
seen  almost  daily,  and  that  their  eyries  are  numerous  on  the  ledges 
of  the  rocky  cliffs ;  but  where  no  such  cliffs  occur  they  nest  in  tall 

18 


spruces.  Specimens  shot  by  his  party  had  been  feeding  on  marsh 
hawks,  jays,  crossbills,  sparrows  and  other  birds.  The  pigeon  hawk 
and  sparrow  hawk  visit  the  same  region — 'the  latter  rarely.  The 
osprey  fishes  along  all  the  larger  rivers  and  lakes,  wandering  far  to 
the  northward. 

Several  owls  are  to  be  found  in  the  interior  of  Alaska.  The  far- 
ranging  short-eared  owl  is  common,  but  is  migratory.  The  great 
gray  species  is  perhaps  the  best  known  owl  of  the  wooded  interior, 
to  which  it  is  almost  exclusively  confined.  It  is  a  sleepy,  stupid 
sort  of  bird,  at  any  rate  in  the  daytime,  when  it  may  sometimes  be 
caught  in  the  hand  without  seeking  to  avoid  this  misadventure.  It 
is  a  hunter  of  small  birds.  Dr.  Ball  wrote  that  in  his  day  old  men  and 
old  women  among  the  Indians  ate  it,  but  added :  "The  natives  have  a 
superstition  that  if  young  persons  eat  it  they  will  become  old  very 
soon  and  die." 

Another  common  species  is  the  handsome  little  Richardson's  owl, 
and  this,  also,  is  frequently  taken  from  its  perch  by  hand,  and  is  the 
subject  of  legends  and  bed-time  stories  among  both  Eskimos  and 
Indians,  who  sometimes  keep  it  as  a  pet  for  the  children.  It  usually 
nests  in  a  hole  in  a  tree,  but  now  and  then  takes  possession  of  the 
abandoned  nest  of  a  jay  or  thrush. 

The  western,  or  subarctic,  variety  of  the  great  horned  owl  is  to 
be  discovered  in  both  summer  and  winter  in  all  parts  of  Alaska,  al- 
though restricted  to  the  wooded  district  during  its  breeding-season 
which  begins  early,  sometimes  early  in  April.  The  nest  is  a  large 
structure,  made  of  twigs  and  branches  and  placed  in  a  spruce  tree  in 
the  depths  of  the  woods.  Mr.  Nelson,  in  his  Report,  gives  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  feelings  inspired  in  the  winter  traveler  by  the  hooting 
of  these  great  owls,  as  he  listens  to  them  in  the  darkness  and  toil  of 
a  sledge-journey  across  the  snowy  and  otherwise  utterly  silent  wastes. 
"When  the  winter  draws  on/'  he  tells  us,  "and  during  the  famine 
period  just  before  the  spring  opens,  it  is  common  for  them  [the  owls] 
to  get  a  foot  into  a  fox-trap  while  they  are  foraging  for  food.  Again, 
in  early  June,  as  the  fur-traders  come  down  the  Yukon  with  their 
furs  they  not  infrequently  bring  the  half-grown  young  of  these  birds 
as  pets." 

The  snowy  owl,  on  the  contrary,  is  rare  in  the  wooded  district, 
but  the  American  hawk  owl  is  familiar  throughout  the  year.  "This," 
Nelson  remarks,  "is  perhaps  the  most  abundant  bird  of  prey  through- 
out the  entire  wooded  part  of  northern  Alaska.  It  is  rather  closely 
limited  to  the  region  of  spruce  and  pine  forests  of  the  interior,  and 

19 


occurs  along  the  open  coasts  of  the  Arctic  and  Bering  seas  merely 
as  a  straggler."  Joseph  Grinnell,  in  his  essay  on  the  Birds  of  Kotze- 
bue  Sound,  gives  an  interesting  note  of  his  experience  with  this 
owl,  from  which  I  quote : 

In  the  spring  of  1899  their  arrival  was  noted  on  April  10th  in  the  Yukon 
district  of  Alaska.  At  this  date  they  were  already  paired,  and  a  female  secured 
contained  large  ova.  On  April  26th  I  located  a  pair  of  hawk  owls  which  by 
their  restlessness  indicated  a  nesting  site  near  by.  The  nest  was  finally 
found,  but  there  were  as  yet  no  eggs.  It  was  in  the  hollow  end  of  a  leaning 
dead  spruce  stub  about  10  feet  above  the  ground.  The  dry  rotten  chips  in 
the  bottom  were  modelled  into  a  neatly  rounded  depression.  The  male  bird 
was  quite  noisy  often  repeating  a  far-reaching  rolling  trill.  Both  birds  fre- 
quently uttered  a  low  whine,  alternately  answering  one  another.  On  May  8th, 
while  snow-shoeing  across  the  country  toward  the  base  of  the  Jade  moun- 
tains, my  attention  was  attracted  by  the  distant  trill  of  a  hawk  owl. 
I  had  given  up  hope  of  finding  a  nest  and  had  started  on,  when,  by  mere 
chance,  I  happened  to  catch  sight  of  a  hole  in  a  dead  spruce  fully  200  yards 
away.  A  close  approach  showed  a  sitting  bird  which  afterwards  proved 
to  be  the  male.  Its  tail  was  protruding  at  least  two  inches  from  the  hole, 
while  the  bird's  head  was  turned  so  that  it  was  facing  out  over  its  back. 
When  I  tapped  on  the  tree  the  bird  left  the  nest,  flew  off  about  thirty  yards, 
turned  and  made  for  my  head  like  a  shot.  It  planted  itself  with  its  full  weight 
on  to  my  skull,  drawing  blood  from  three  claw-marks  in  my  scalp.  My  hat 
was  torn  off  and  thrown  twelve  feet.  All  this  the  owl  did  with  scarcely  a 
stop  in  its  headlong  swoop.  When  as  far  on  the  other  side  the  courageous 
bird  made  another  dash  and  then  another,  before  I  had  collected  enough 
wits  to  get  in  a  shot.  The  female  which  was  evidently  the  bird  I  had  first 
discovered  on  look-out  duty  then  made  her  appearance,  but  was  less  vociferous. 
The  nest  contained  three  newly  hatched  young  and  six  eggs  in  various  ad- 
vanced stages  of  incubation.  The  downy  young,  although  their  eyes  were 
still  tightly  closed  and  they  were  very  feeble,  uttered  a  continuous  wheedling 
cry,  especially  if  the  tree  were  tapped  or  they  were  in  any  way  jarred.  This 
could  be  heard  twenty  feet  away  from  the  base  of  the  tree.  The  nest  cavity 
was  evidently  an  enlarged  woodpecker's  hole. 

Woodland  Species 

The  kingfishers,  arriving  early  from  the  south  in  large  numbers, 
frequent  all  the  streams  of  the  interior,  digging  nest-tunnels  in  their 
banks,  and  remaining  until  the  freezing  of  the  rivers  compels  them  to 
betake  themselves  to  less  severe  latitudes. 

Both  hairy  and  downy  woodpeckers  abound,  making  their  nest- 
holes  by  preference  in  the  stubs  and  trunks  of  deciduous  trees,  yet 
occupying  spruces  whenever  birches  and  poplars  are  not  at  hand. 
Two  species  of  three-toed  woodpeckers  also  breed  in  these  forests,  as 
also  does  the  northern  variety  of  the  eastern  flicker.  Bishop  says  that 
these  flickers  are  the  most  common  of  all  woodpeckers  about  Fort 
Yukon. 

Whether  the  hummingbird  of  the  coast  (Selasphorus  rufus)  ever 
crosses  the  mountains  into  the  interior  is  not  certainly  known ;  no 
doubt  it  does  so  now  and  then,  as  it  appears  to  be  a  regular  visitor  to 
the  head-valleys  of  the  Yukon  River. 

20 


Passing  to  the  tribe  of  insectivorous  perching-birds — the  song- 
sters of  wood  and  meadow — we  find  the  list  in  this  district  a  short 
one ;  yet  representatives  of  many  kinds  familiar  in  the  south  resort  to 
these  far  northern  valleys  and  hills  to  rear  their  young  during  the 
brief  season  of  warmth  allotted  to  them  for  that  purpose.  Among  these 
are  several  flycatchers,  the  first  on  the  list  being  the  phoebe.  It  is 
especially  welcome  because  it  settles  at  once  in  the  villages  and 
about  the  miners'  cabins,  and  dares,  with  engaging  confidence,  to  place 
its  nest  of  mud  and  moss  upon  the  projecting  end  of  some  house-log, 
or  beneath  the  porch  or  eaves.  Where  rocky  cliffs  border  the  Yukon 
the  phcebes  build  their  nests  on  the  ledges,  as  seems  to  have  been 
their  primitive  custom  everywhere.  Their  highway  of  migration  is 
along  the  course  of  the  great  river. 

The  olive-sided  flycatcher,  which  one  would  expect  to  find  here, 
does  not  seem  to  go  much  north  of  British  Columbia.  The  plaintive 
call  of  Richardson's,  or  the  Alaska,  wood  pewee,  is  to  be  heard  in 
summer  even  beyond  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  its  eggs  may  be  looked 
for  in  July.  The  alder  and  Hammond's  flycatchers  are  numerous  in 
this  district  wherever  thickets  of  alders  and  willows  grow  in  warm 
valleys. 

Steller's  jay  occasionally  follows  the  Yukon  north  to  its  great 
bend  near  the  international  boundary.  The  jay  of  Alaska,  however,  is 
the  "smoky"  form  (fumifrons)  of  the  Canada  jay,  known  to  everyone 
by  such  names  as  whisky  jack,  camp-robber,  moose-bird,  and  the 
like.  It  is  as  bold  in  its  nest-making  as  in  other  things,  and  often 
lays  eggs  which  must  hatch  in  a  temperature  below  zero.  Joseph 
Grinnell  gives  a  graphic  account  of  its  nesting,  supplementing  the 
amusing  story  told  in  Mr.  Nelson's  Report  of  the  superstitious  fear 
the  natives  formerly  felt  toward  disturbing  the  nests  of  these  birds, 
which,  they  believed  would  revenge  themselves  by  prolonging  the 
winter.  Mr.  Grinnell  writes: 

Toward  spring  the  jays  became  remarkably  reclusive,  and  their  visits 
around  camp  were  less  and  less  frequent.  I  suspected  that  by  the  middle  of 
March  they  would  nest,  and  I  consequently  spent  much  time  in  fruitless 
search.  .  .  .  Finally  I  saw  a  jay  with  a  large  bunch  of  white  down  in 
its  bill,  flying  back  along  the  timber.  .  .  .  Not  until  May  13th,  however, 
did  I  finally  find  an  occupied  jay's  nest,  and  its  discovery  then  was  by  mere 
accident.  It  was  twelve  feet  up  in  a  small  spruce  amongst  a  clump  of  larger 
ones  on  a  low  ridge.  There  were  no  "tell-tale  sticks  and  twigs  on  the  snow 
beneath,"  as  Nelson,  notes,  and  in  fact  nothing  to  indicate  its  location.  The 
nest  rested  on  several  horizontal  or  slightly  drooping  branches  against  the 
south  side  of  the  main  trunk.  :  .  .  The  walls  and  "bottom  consisted"  of 
a  closely  felted  mass  of  black  hair-Hke  lichen,  many  short  bits  of  spruce 
twigs,  feathers  of  ptarmigan  and  hawk  owl,  strips  of  a  fibrous  bark,  and  a 
few  grasses.  '  The  interior  was  lined  with  the  softest  and  finest  grained 
material.  The  whole  fabric  is  of  such  a  quality  as  to  accomplish  the  greatest 
conservation  of  warmth,  whicn  certainly  must  be  necessary  where  incubation 
is  carried  on  --in  belo'w  'zero-  weather. 

21 


The  raven  wanders  over  the  entire  Territory,  but  is  much  less 
conspicuous  and  familiar  in  the  interior  than  on  the  coast.  It  is 
resident;  and  Nelson  gives  a  fine  picture  of  the  part  it  plays  in  the 
terrible  landscape  and  experiences  of  midwinter  life  amid  the  wastes 
of  the  lower  Yukon  Valley.  No  crows  reach  this  country,  but  the 
rusty  blackbird  is  a  regular,  although  infrequent,  visitor,  extending 
its  breeding-range  to  the  northern  limit  of  tree-growth. 

Finches  and  Other  Small  Songsters 

The  finch  family,  as  would  be  expected,  is  numerously  represent- 
ed, some  of  those  which  haunt  trees,  as  the  grosbeaks,  being  among 
the  most  abundant  of  Alaskan  birds.  The  Alaskan  pine  grosbeak  is 
everywhere  abundant  and  fearless  all  the  year  round.  Grinnell 
furnishes  the  best  account  extant  of  this  very  interesting  bird : 

In  September  and  October  pine  grosbeaks  were  quite  numerous,  being 
often  met  with  in  companies  of  six  to  a  dozen,  immatures  and  adults  together. 
They  were  usually  among  the  scattering  birch  and  spruce  which  line  the 
low  ridges.  There,  until  the  snow  covered  the  ground,  they  fed  on  blueberries, 
rose-apples  and  cranberries.  During  the  winter  their  food  was  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  redpolls — seeds  and  buds  of  birch,  alder  and  willow,  and 
sometimes  tender  spruce  needles.  In  the  severest  winter  weather  they 
were  not  often  in  the  spruce,  but  had  then  retired  into  the  willow  beds. 
The  UvSual  note  is  a  clear  whistle  of  three  syllables.  The  native  name,  ki-u-tak, 
represents  it.  Then  there  was  a  low,  mellow,  one-syllabled  note  uttered 
among  members  of  a  flock  when  alarmed.  Twice  I  noted  solitary  males, 
when  flying  across  the  woods,  singing  a  loud,  rollicking  warble,  much  like  a 
purple  finch.  One  morning,  the  18th  of  February,  found  me  across  the  river 
skirting  the  willows  in  search  of  ptarmigan.  Although  it  was  50  degrees 
below  zero,  a  pine  grosbeak,  from  the  depths  of  a  nearby  thicket,  suddenly 
burst  forth  in  a  rich  melodious  strain,  something  like  our  southern  black- 
headed  grosbeak.  He  continued,  though  in  a  more  subdued  fashion,  for 
several  minutes.  Such  surroundings  and  conditions  for  a  bird-song  like  this! 
Again  one  day  in  March,  during  a  heavy  snow-storm,  a  bright  red  male  sang 
similarly  at  intervals  for  nearly  an  hour,  from  an  alder  thicket  near  the  cabin, 
and  as  summer  approached  their  song  was  heard  more  and  more  frequently. 

Not  until  May  25th  did  I  discover  a  nest.  This  was  barely  commenced, 
but  on  June  3rd,  when  I  visited  the  locality  again,  the  nest  was  completed 
and  contained  four  fresh  eggs.  The  female  was  incubating,  and  remained  on 
the  nest  until  nearly  touched.  The  nest  was  eight  feet  above  the  ground  on 
the  lower^  horizontal  branches  of  a  small  spruce  growing  on  the  side  of  a 
wooded  ridge.  The  nest  was  a  shallow  affair,  very  much  like  a  tanager's. 
.  The  eggs  were  pale  Nile  blue  with  a  possible  greenish  tinge,  dotted 
and  spotted  with  pale  lavender,  drab  and  sepia. 

The  red,  or  American,  crossbill  is  extremely  rare,  and  perhaps 
does  not  occur  at  all  north  of  the  Alaskan  Mountains ;  but  the  white- 
winged  crossbill  is  to  be  seen  everywhere  that  forests  grow.  It  is 
more  familiar,  Nelson  tells  us,  than  the  pine  grosbeak,  frequently 
coming  low  down  among  the  smaller  growth;  and  it  is  a  common 
sight  to  see  parties  of  them  swinging  about  in  every  conceivable 
position  in  the  tops  of  the  cotton-woods  or  birch  trees,  where  the 

22 


birds  are  busily  engaged  in  feeding  upon  the  buds.  "They  pay  no 
heed  to  a  passing  party  of  sleds  except,  perhaps,  that  an  individual 
will  fly  down  to  some  convenient  bush,  whence  he  curiously  examines 
the  strange  procession,  and  then,  his  curiosity  satisfied  or  confidence 
restored,  back  he  goes  to  his  companions  and  continues  his  feeding. 
When  fired  at  they  utter  chirps  of  alarm,  and  call  to  each  other  with 
a  long,  sweet  note,  something  similar  to  that  of  the  goldfinch." 

Equally  abundant  all  the  year  round  are  the  two  redpolls — both 
the  hoary  redpoll  and  the  common  "linnet."  They  are  alike  in  range 
and  habits,  and  in  July  come  trooping  about,  young  and  old,  in  large 
parties,  with  great  confidence  and  a  peculiar  pertness,  taking  posses- 
sion of  the  premises  and  using  the  roofs  and  fences  for  convenient 
perches.  "On  warm  sunshiny  days  during  April  they  come  familiarly 
up  to  the  very  windows  and  doors,  and  peer  about  with  an  odd  mix- 
ture of  confidence  and  curiosity,  examining  everything,  and  scarcely 
deigning  to  move  aside  as  the  people  pass  back  and  forth.  By  the 
8th  of  June  their  young  are  frequently  hatched,  and  by  the  1st  of 
July  are  fully  fledged." 

The  snowflake  resorts  in  summer  to  the  northernmost  parts  of 
the  interior  to  rear  its  young;  but  as  the  cold  weather  comes  on 
nearly  all  go  south  to  the  warmer  or  less  snowy  parts  of  Canada, 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Lapland  longspur. 

The  western  savanna  sparrow  is  not  uncommon,  Osgood  finding 
many  young  about  Circle  City  in  August ;  and  Gambell's,  or  the  inter- 
mediate, white-crowned  sparrow  is  one  of  the  most  numerous  and 
familiar  of  summer  birds  all  over  the  Territory,  beginning  to  nest 
about  May  20.  Its  nest  ordinarily  is  placed  on  the  ground,  rarely  in 
low  bushes,  and  is  lined  with  deer's  hair  and  feathers,  or  sometimes 
with  club-moss.  The  four  eggs  "have  a  clayey-white  ground-color, 
thickly  covered  with  small  reddish  spots,"  and  measure  about  .87  by 
.64  of  an  inch. 

The  golden-crowned  sparrow  is  much  less  often  seen  in  the 
interior  than  near  the  coast.  The  western  tree  sparrow  is  very 
numerous,  but  the  chipping  sparrow  much  less  so.  In  regard  to  the 
tree  sparrow  Nelson  gives  many  particulars : 

Upon  its  first  arrival  it  comes  about  the  trading-posts  and  native  villages, 
frequenting  the  weed-patches.  After  a  short  visit  here,  and  when  the  snow 
has  melted  from  portions  of  their  bushy  retreats,  they  leave  the  vicinity 
of  man  and  betake  themselves  to  the  hill-sides,  where  .  .  .  the  young 
are  hatched  and  become  fully  fledged  early  in  July.  Toward  the  last  of  this 
month — sometimes  by  the  middle — the  young  and  old  come  trooping  back 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  houses,  ready  to  feast  with  numbers  of  their  fellows  in 
a  motley  crowd  among  the  weed-patches  and  in  the  garden-plot.  During 

23 


the  last  half  of  July  and  the  entire  month  of  August,  with  various  others  of 
their  kind  they  may  be  found  flitting  about  the  buildings,  or  even  coming 
within  the  yard  and  up  to  the  very  doorsteps,  their  bright  black  eyes  carefully 
searching  every  inch  of  ground  for  morsels  of  food.  In  spring  these  birds 
attain  their  breeding  plumage  by  the  wearing  away  of  the  grayish  tips.  .  .  . 
In  the  north,  before  taking  leave  for  their  winter  home,  they  gather  in  flocks 
on  the  bushy  borders  of  the  woods,  and  their  low,  sweet  chorus  is  heard 
rising  and  falling  as  they  tune  their  gentle  pipes  for  the  songs  they  are  to 
utter  later  in  the  season.  This  bird's  power  of  song,  however,  is  not  great, 
and  its  music  is,  perhaps,  most  pleasing  when  thus  heard  in  chorus. 

The  snow-bird  (Junco)  also  breeds  abundantly  all  along  the 
Yukon  and  its  tributary  valleys.  "The  slate-colored  junco  and  the 
western  chipping  sparrow,"  remarks  Dr.  Bishop,  speaking  of  the 
region  about  Fort  Yukon,  "were  most  common  about  the  brush- 
heaps  left  by  the  lumbermen,  weed-grown  clearings  resulting  from 
forest-fires,  and  about  cabins  or  the  towns.  Every  nest  found  was 
sunk  in  the  ground  to  the  rim  in  an  open  place  under  a  weed  or  a 
tussock  of  grass." 

None  of  the  varieties  of  the  song  sparrow  goes  so  far  north ;  but 
its  place  is  taken  by  Lincoln's  sparrow,  whose  habits  are  similar, 
and  whose  delightful  singing  is  heard  all  over  the  wooded  interior. 
The  fox  sparrow,  too,  regales  the  ear  in  summer  wherever  trees  or 
bushes  grow. 

Both  the  cliff  and  the  barn  swallows  cheer  the  hearts  of  the 
people  in  towns,  as  well  as  the  residents  in  lonely  miners'  and  pros- 
pectors' cabins  scattered  through  the  mountains,  placing  their  nests 
confidingly  under  roofs  as  soon  as  these  are  provided  for  them;  yet 
many  colonies  of  both  species  inhabit  the  wild  cliffs.  The  tree 
swallows,  nesting  in  abandoned  woodpecker-holes,  and  in  hollow 
stubs,  are  regular  summer  visitors,  along  with  the  violet-green  and 
the  bank  swallows ;  the  violet-green  species  customarily  nests  in 
the  cliffs,  but  Dr.  Bishop  records  that  several  times  he  saw  it  entering 
tunnels  resembling  those  of  bank  swallows,  great  numbers  of  whose 
burrows  pitted  the  earthen  banks  along  the  Yukon. 

The  Bohemian  waxwing  is  a  resident  of  northern  Alaska,  where 
the  first  nest  and  eggs  on  record  were  obtained  at  Fort  Yukon  in 
1861  by  Robert  Kennicott.  This  nest  was  placed  in  a  spruce  growing 
at  the  edge  of  a  swamp,  and  both  it  and  the  eggs  much  resembled 
those  of  the  familiar  cedar-bird.  Bishop  furnished  an  interesting  note 
on  this  bird : 

Two  males  that  we  noticed  while  descending  Thirty-Mile  River  were 
perched  on  the  topmost  sprays  of  tall  spruces,  uttering  a  lisping  whistle  at 
frequent  intervals.  One  of  them  flew  after  a  passing  insect  in  the  manner 
of  a  flycatcher.  Flocks  were  easily  approached,  and  when  one  bird  was 
shot  the  res't  would  scatter,  and  each  would  alight  on  the  top  branch  of  some 
spruce"  and  utter  a  characteristic  call-note.  This  note,  which  we  often  hear 

24 


from  passing  flocks,  was  similar  to  the  whistle  just  mentioned.  The  birds 
that  we  collected  had  been  feeding  on  the  purple  berries  of  some  unidentified 
plant. 

The  northern  butcher-bird  is  also  common  all  over  the  interior 
of  Alaska;  and  Nelson  gives  a  pleasantly  full  account  of  its  singing, 
and  of  other  features  of  its  summer  life,  making  it  appear  to  much 
better  advantage  than  does  the  ordinary  biography,  which  dwells  too 
much  on  the  bird's  predatory  habits,  most  noticeable  in  winter. 

A  surprising  number  of  those  delicate  migrants,  the  wood- 
warblers,  travel  annually  to  this  far-northern  region — a  fact  surpris- 
ing less  on  account  of  the  cold  of  the  climate  than  of  the  distance 
from  their  winter  home,  and  of  the  high  mountains  which  must  be 
passed  over  in  the  flight  from  the  Canadian  plains  to  the  valley  of  the 
Yukon.  Yet  the  wooded  interior  of  Alaska  harbors  in  summer  great 
numbers  of  yellow  warblers,  orange-crowned  warblers,  myrtle-birds, 
blackpolls,  oven-birds,  blackcaps  and  water-thrushes ;  and  Mr.  Nelson 
devotes  many  pages  to  his  observations  upon  their  pretty  ways,  which 
do  not  differ  essentially  from  those  observable  in  more  southern 
latitudes. 

The  pipit  lark,  the  dipper,  the  red-breasted  nuthatch,  the  chickadee 
(in  three  varieties),  and  the  ruby-crowned  kinglet  of  Alaska,  are  the 
same  attractive  little  creatures  so  well  known  elsewhere. 

This  brings  the  list  for  this  district  up  to  the  thrushes,  a  group 
that  is  well  represented,  happily  for  the  Alaskan  people.  The  gray- 
cheeked,  or  Alice's,  thrush  is  to  be  met  with  abundantly  all  over 
Alaska  in  summer;  and  equally  numerous  at  that  season  throughout 
the  wooded  parts  of  the  Territory  is  the  local  buff-cheeked  variety 
of  Swainson's,  or  the  olive-backed  thrush ;  but  it  differs  very  slightly 
from  the  type  in  appearance,  and  not  at  all  in  habits.  The  music  of 
even  these  charming  choristers,  however,  is  surpassed  by  that  of  the 
solitaire : 

On  the  hot  noon  of  June  26,  while  seated  on  the  summit  of  a  hill  some 
1,500  feet  above  Caribou  Crossing,  I  heard  the  most  beautiful  bird  song  that 
has  ever  delighted  my  ear.  It  seemed  to  combine  the  strength  of  the  robin, 
the  joyousness  and  soaring  quality  of  the  bobolink,  and  the  sweetness  and 
purity  of  the  wood  thrush.  Starting  low  and  apparently  far  away,  it  gained 
in  intensity  and  volume  until  it  filled  the  air,  and  I  looked  for  the  singer 
just  above  my  head.  I  finally  traced  the  song  to  a  Townsend  solitaire  that 
was  seated  on  a  dead  tree  about  150  yards  away,  pouring  forth  this  volume  of 
melody  without  leaving  its  perch.  The  singer  came  close  enough  later  to 
make  identification  certain. — Bishop. 

The  robin  also  occurs  numerously  wlierever  woods  grow  to  give 
it  food  and  shelter;  and  it  is  seen  in  the  spring  migrations  on  the 
coast  of  Bering  Sea,  but  few,  if  any,  breed  there.  Its  relatives,  the 
Oregon  robin  and  the  mountain  bluebird,  occasionally  appear  near 
the  Canadian  boundary. 

25 


ARCTIC  COASTAL  DISTRICT 

BY    E.    W.    NELSON 

Alaska  is  widely  famed  for  its  gold-placers,  fur-seals,  salmon- 
fisheries,  majestic  glaciers  and  awe-inspiring  mountains.  To  these 
and  other  favors,  bestowed  by  the  generous  hand  of  nature,  is  added 
a  bird-life  wonderfully  rich  and  varied  in  comparison  with  that  of  the 
same  latitudes  on  the  eastern  side  of  North  America.  This  is  due  to 
more  favorable  climatic  conditions,  to  the  varied  physical  character 
of  the  land-area,  and  to  the  abundance  of  small  animal-life  in  the 
ocean,  which  affords  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  food  to  sea-fowl. 

Along  the  extreme  southeast  coast  of  the  Territory  lies  a  series 
of  heavily  forested  islands ;  far  to  the  west  are  strung  the  rock-bound, 
treeless  islands  of  the  Aleutian  chain ;  to  the  northward  bordering 
the  coasts  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  lies  a  broad  belt  of 
arctic  tundra,  separating  the  sparsely  wooded  interior  from  the  sea. 
These  coastal  plains  are  cut  by  the  great  Yukon,  Kuskokwim,  and 
Kowak  rivers,  flowing  down  from  the  interior,  where  they  rise  on 
the  slopes  of  far-distant  mountains.  This  great  region  offers  a  superb 
background  for  the  swarming  bird-life  that  visits  it  in  summer. 

Alaska  is  situated  so  far  north  that  its  year  is  divided  into  only 
two  seasons,  a  short  summer  and  a  long,  cold  winter.  From  the 
middle  of  May  until  the  middle  of  July  there  is  much  calm  and 
sunny  weather,  with  a  delightful  temperature.  This  pleasant  period 
is  especially  favorable  to  the  successful  nesting  of  myriads  of  birds 
of  both  land  and  sea,  and  enables  them  to  bring  their  downy  young 
through  the  first  few  precarious  weeks  of  their  lives.  It  is  amazing 
to  note  the  rapidity  with  which  flowers  spring  up  and  bloom  as  soon 
as  the  snow  melts  from  the  tundra;  and  in  sheltered  places  grasses 
and  flowering  plants  grow  rankly,  sometimes  waist  high,  even  directly 
under  the  Arctic  Circle,  as  I  saw  on  the  shore  of  Kotzebue  Sound. 

Along  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  the  sun  sinks  only  a  short  distance 
below  the  horizon  during  a  few  hours  of  the  twenty-four,  so  that  in 
June  the  light  at  midnight  is  sufficient  to  enable  one  easily  to  read 
fine  print.  The  birds  at  this  season  observe  the  nightly  hours  of  rest, 
however,  with  the  same  regularity  shown  where  night  and  day  are 
definitely  marked.  At  eight  or  nine  o'clock  at  night  all  except  the 
nocturnal  species  retire  to  secluded  spots  to  rest  until  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  noise  of  their  many  voices  dies  suddenly 

26 


away  as  the  birds  go  to  sleep,  and  quietness  reigns  unbroken,  except 
for  the  melodious  songs  of  the  old-squaws,  or  the  occasional  wild, 
laughing  cry  of  a  loon.  During  the  long  twilight  of  these  early 
summer  nights  I  often  wandered  for  hours  over  the  silent  tundra 
southeast  of  St.  Michael,  watching  the  sleeping  birds  on  the  number- 
less ponds  as  well  as  on  the  open  land.  From  9  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing until  about  3  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  sight  of  birds  on  the 
wing  was  rare,  except  when  occasionally  straggling  parties  of  Sabine's 
gulls  appeared.  These  exquisitely  beautiful  birds  trailed  silently 
by,  one  by  one,  at  all  hours,  their  black  heads  and  wing-borders  con- 
trasting with  their  snow-white  bodies.  Now  and  then  an  arctic  tern 
would  pass,  and  more  rarely  still  a  wandering  loon. 

The  day's  activity  is  usually  begun  in  the  morning  by  the  clang- 
ing cries  of  geese,  quickly  echoed  by  a  medley  of  other  bird-notes 
from  all  directions.  The  bird-world  becomes  at  once  awake.  Flocks 
of  ducks  and  geese  move  away  to  feeding-grounds,  gulls  and  terns 
circle  and  hover  over  ponds,  crarics  stalk  solemnly  about,  and  small 
waders  are  busy  everywhere. 

Asiatic  Visitors  to  Alaska 

Alaska  is  separated  from  the  nearest  point  of  Asia  at  Bering 
Strait  by  a  distance  of  only  about  forty-eight  miles.  This  nearness 
makes  it  certain  that  various  East-Asian  birds  will  appear  from  time 
to  time  within  our  borders,  and,  in  fact,  more  than  twenty  species 
of  Old  World  birds  have  already  been  found  in  western  Alaska; 
two  of  these,  the  Pacific  golden  plover  and  the  bristle-thighed  curlew, 
winter  on  the  southeastern  coast  of  Asia  or  in  the  Polynesian  Islands, 
but  breed  in  northeastern  Siberia  and  on  the  Bering-Sea  coast  of 
Alaska.  The  typical  form  of  golden  plover,  familiar  as  a  migrant  in 
the  eastern  United  States,  occupies  only  that  part  of  Alaska  from 
Kotzebue  Sound  north,  and  the  more  richly  golden  form  of  the 
Pacific  replaces  it  to  the  southward  of  Bering  Strait.  The  European 
teal  breeds  throughout  the  Aleutian  Islands,  where  it  replaces  the 
green-winged  teal  of  the  mainland.  The  sharp-tailed  sandpiper,  a 
beautiful  species  somewhat  similar  to  the  pectoral  but  much  more 
richly  colored,  swarms  across  from  northeastern  Siberia  after  the 
breeding-season,  and  is.  very  numerous  along  the  Alaskan  coast  of 
Bering  Sea.  The  yellow  wagtails,  also,  breed  on  this  Alaskan  coast 
as  well  as  in  eastern  Siberia,  but  in  autumn  all  of  the  Alaskan 
ones  return  to  Asia  for  their  southward  migration.  The  beautiful 
little  spoon-billed  sandpiper,  the  dotterel,  the  Mongolian  plover, 
Cassin's  bullfinch,  the  Siberian  red-spotted,  blue-throated  warbler, 

27 


the  willow  warbler,  and  the  red-throated  pipit,  occur  as  wanderers 
from  Siberia  at  the  end  of  July  or  in  August,  but  return  to  Asia  for  the 
southward  migration. 

The  Pribilof,  or  Fur-Seal,  Islands  are  the  most  notable  part  of 
Alaska  for  the  number  of  Old  World  strays  which  have  been  taken 
there.  Among  these  are  the  tufted  duck,  the  European  pochard,  the 
long-toed  stint,  the  ruff,  Tegmalm's  owl,  the  Kamchatkan  cuckoo, 
and  the  Japanese  hawfinch.  The  information  on  this  subject  already 
obtained  on  these  islands,  despite  so  small  an  amount  of  work  done, 
indicates  that  numerous  other  Old  World  birds  are  likely  to  be 
added  to  our  fauna  there.  Wandering  species  appear  to  drop  in  at 
these  islands  much  as  they  do  on  the  island  of  Helgoland  in  the 
German  Sea,  which  has  become  famed  in  bird-annals  for  the  extraor- 
dinary number  of  its  strange  visitants. 

Braving  an  Arctic  Winter 

In  spite  of  its  northern  situation  and  the  arctic  conditions  that 
prevail  in  winter  over  the  greater  part  of  the  Territory,  Alaska 
possesses  a  long  list  of  birds  that  remain  within  its  borders  the  year 
round,  some  even  in  the  extreme  north — hardy  spirits  that  hold  their 
own  through  all  the  severities  of  a  boreal  winter. 

Conspicuous  among  these  is  the  Alaskan  jay,  the  northern  repre- 
sentative of  the  well  known  Canada  jay,  from  which  it  differs  only 
a  little  in  coloration.  Like  the  Canada  jay,  it  is  called  "camp-robber" 
and  "whisky-jack,"  and  is  a  common  and  familiar  visitor  to  camps 
and  villages,  especially  in  winter,  when  these  jays  are  amusingly, 
and  often  exasperatingly,  audacious  in  their  raids  on  any  unguarded 
food.  If  encouraged  they  become  extremely  tame,  and  will  enter 
cabins  to  enjoy  the  hospitality  of  the  occupant,  or  will  even  fly  to 
meet  a  friend  when  he  goes  abroad,  alighting  on  his  head  or  shoulder, 
and  otherwise  making  themselves  interesting  companions  to  the 
lonely  dweller  in  an  isolated  winter  camp.  A  typical  instance  of  the 
impish  humor  of  these  birds  was  given  by  an  encounter  1  had  with 
one  early  in  June  on  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea.  I  was  crossing  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  to  St.  Michael  in  a  large  kyak,  with  two 
Eskimo  companions.  About  midway  we  camped  and  slept  for  a  few 
hours  on  the  low  point  of  Cape  Romanoff.  When  the  sun  arose,  very 
early  in  the  morning,  we  made  a  fire  of  driftwood  and  had  our  break- 
fast close  to  a  scraggy  little  patch  of  leafless  alders  near  the  beach, 
which  were  the  only  shrubs  in  sight  and  appeared  too  small  and  scat- 
tered to  conceal  any  bird.  Finally  we  launched  our  kyak  and  started 

28 


to  paddle  away.  At  the  first  stroke  a  shrill,  exultant  note  caused  us 
to  look  back,  and  there,  balanced  on  the  tip  of  the  largest  alder  stood 
a  whisky  jack,  his  attitude  and  cries  expressing  contemptuous  de- 
rision at  our  failure  to  see  him  while  camped  within  ten  feet.  The 
Eskimos  were  as  much  amused  as  myself  by  this  impudent  perform- 
ance, and  we  paddled  away  laughing,  while  the  bird  proceeded  to 
search  our  camping-place  for  scraps  of  food. 

The  water-ouzel,  or  dipper,  is  another  of  the  notable  land-birds 
that  lives  throughout  the  year  in  the  North.  It  is  smaller  than  the 
robin,  has  a  much  shorter  tail,  and  is  of  nearly  uniform  dark  leaden 
gray.  The  ouzel  dwells  along  small  swift  streams,  and  feeds  on 
insects  and  other  minute  animals  that  it  finds  along  the  margins  or 
seeks  by  diving  into  the  water  and  walking  along  the  bottom.  In 
winter  its  distribution  is  limited  strictly  to  the  vicinity  of  openings  in 
the  ice,  where  the  current  is  so  swift  that  it  does  not  freeze  over. 
Through  these  openings  the  ouzels  reach  the  bottom  of  the  streams 
and  gather  their  food.  It  appears  almost  incredible  that  these  small 
birds  can  exist  by  haunting  the  icy  margins  of  such  openings  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  northern  limit  of  trees,  and  in  temperatures  often 
ranging  from  50°  to  70°  F.  below  zero;  but  they  have  dense  and 
closely  set  feathers  that  turn  water  like  the  plumage  of  a  duck. 

That  some  water-fowl  are  equally  hardy,  is  shown  by  the  obser- 
vations of  Charles  Sheldon  during  the  winter  of  1907-8,  which  he 
spent  on  the  north  base  of  Mt.  McKinley.  On  January  3,  1908,  he 
visited  a  point  on  the  Toklat  River  about  forty  miles  above  its  mouth 
where  a  swift  rapid  about  three  miles  long  prevents  the  water  from 
freezing  throughout  the  winter.  Here  a  flock  of  about  three  hun- 
dred mallard  ducks  were  wintering,  and  were  feeding  solely  upon  the 
dead  salmon  and  unhatched  salmon  eggs  lodged  in  the  bottom  of 
the  stream.  Sheldon  reports  that  mallards  had  been  noted  wintering 
at  this  place  during  the  preceding  seven  years,  and  mentions  several 
other  places  in  interior  Alaska  where  mallards  are  known  to  winter. 
These  observations  show  that  birds  are  indifferent  to  the  lowest  win- 
ter temperatures,  as  long  as  sufficient  food  is  available. 

One  winter  during  my  residence  in  the  North  Jack  McQuesten 
brought  me  a  fine  specimen  of  the  fork-tailed  petrel,  that  he  had  cap- 
tured toward  the  end  of  November  at  an  opening  in  the  ice  about 
seventy-five  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  River.  This  bird 
was  evidently  a  stray  individual  that  had  become  lost  over  the  snow- 
covered  land,  and  had  wandered  many  hundreds  of  miles  from  its 
proper  wintering-range  in  the  North  Pacific.  It  was  extremely  emaci- 

29 


ated,  and  evidently  was  about  to  perish  from  exhaustion.  Such  trag- 
edies are  common  in  bird-life. 

Although  so  far  north,  Alaska  has  within  its  borders  several 
species  of  grouse.  The  sharp-tailed  grouse  ranges  westward  from 
the  Yukon  Territory,  in  Canada,  to  the  vicinity  of  Fairbanks  on  the 
Tanana  River.  The  gray  ruffed  grouse  and  the  spruce  partridge  oc- 
cupy the  forested  parts  of  the  interior,  and  the  Oregon  ruffed  grouse 
and  Franklin's  grouse  inhabit  the  forests  of  the  southern  parts  of 
the  Territory.  In  addition  to  these  handsome  birds  Alaska  is  the 
home  of  several  species  of  ptarmigan,  living  on  the  bare  mountains, 
or  on  open  tundras,  wherever  arctic  conditions  prevail. 

All  of  the  ptarmigan  of  Alaska  have  a  mottled  buff-and-brown 
summer  plumage,  changing  at  the  approach  of  winter  to  an  almost 
entirely  snowy  white  one,  which  is  worn  until  the  ground  begins  to 
become  free  of  snow  in  spring.  Of  these  grouse  the  white-tailed 
ptarmigan,  which  lives  above  timberline  on  the  bare  mountain-tops 
south  of  the  Yukon,  is  least  numerous  and  not  often  seen.  It  may  be 
distinguished  from  the  others  by  its  pure  white  tail,  the  others  having 
black  tails  hidden  under  the  long  overlying  white  feathers  of  the 
rump.  The  rock  ptarmigan  is  a  little  larger,  and  is  more  generally 
distributed  than  the  white-tailed  species.  The  only  remaining  species, 
the  willow  grouse,  or  willow  ptarmigan,  is  generally  distributed  over 
all  the  tundras  and  open  barrens  of  the  Alaskan  mainland.  It  is  the 
largest  and  by  far  the  most  abundant  of  all  the  ptarmigan,  and  soon 
becomes  a  familiar  bird  to  everyone  who  travels  across  country  in 
that  region. 

In  winter  these  birds  gather  in  enormous  flocks,  numbering 
hundreds,  along  willow-grown  bottoms  south  of  the  Yukon  River. 
When  one  comes  on  such  a  congregation,  and  the  pure  white  birds 
suddenly  take  wing,  it  looks  like  an  explosion  of  the  snowy  surface 
of  the  ground.  Sfnall  coveys,  probably  families  of  the  previous  sum- 
mer, occur  here  and  there  wherever  food  is  to  be  found.  Being  ground- 
roosting  birds,  they  are  in  constant  danger  of  being  stalked  at  night 
by  foxes,  and  sometimes  by  lynxes.  In  order  to  avoid  making  a  trail 
likely  to  lead  an  enemy  to  them,  these  small  coveys,  when  going  to 
roost,  often  fly  to  the  middle  of  a  patch  of  scrubby  alders,  or  other 
small  bushes,  and  drop  into  the  snow  in  their  midst.  Here  they  re- 
main imbedded  to  the  level  of  their  backs  in  the  snow  until  morning, 
when  they  take  flight  by  springing  straight  up,  leaving  clean-cut 
moulds  of  their  forms,  and  fan-shaped  marks  on  each  side  in  the  snow 
showing  where  the  tips  of  their  wings  cut  the  surface  at  the  first 

30 


J 


\  ?   •/%  \^V4'  ,-•  ,     \x 

v$  $im*J  * 


"S  S 

o  o 


stroke.  The  snowy  plumage  of  these  birds  in  winter  renders  them 
as  difficult  to  see  at  that  season  as  their  brown  coat  does  in  summer. 
Ptarmigan  and  other  grouse  suffer  heavily  throughout  the  year  from 
the  birds  of  prey  that  haunt  their  territory  and  pursue  them  relent- 
lessly— eagles,  goshawks,  gyrfalcons,  owls,  ravens,  etc. 

Golden  eagles  occur  throughout  most  of  Alaska,  ranging  to  the 
Arctic  Coast  and  well  out  on  the  Aleutian  chain.  The  Alaskan  bald 
eagle  also  is  numerous,  and  in  certain  places  extraordinarily  nu- 
merous. The  multitude  of  these  handsome  birds  upon  the  islands 
and  along  parts  of  the  southern  coast  of  Alaska  is  almost  incredible 
to  one  who  knows  the  bald  eagle  only  elsewhere.  Sometimes  scores 
of  them  may  be  seen  congregated  about  the  shores  of  a  single  small 
bay  in  southeastern  Alaska  and  they  are  to  be  seen  along  the  entire 
length  of  the  Aleutian  chain.  These  eagles  are  reported  to  be  a  se- 
rious pest  in  places  where  fox-farming  has  been  attempted,  as  they 
destroy  the  foxes,  especially  the  young.  The  great  gray  sea-eagle 
also  crosses  sometimes  from  the  coast  of  Kamtschatka  to  the  Aleutian 
Islands. 

Horned  owls  are  numerous  in  the  wooded  districts,  and  become 
very  plentiful  during  years  when  rabbits  or  lemmings  are  especially 
abundant,  providing  an  unusual  food-supply.  The  traveler  along 
the  frozen  surface  of  the  Yukon  on  winter  nights  frequently  hears 
the  hollow  notes  of  these  birds  from  the  forests  which  loom  like 
black  walls  on  each  side  of  the  river.  Late  in  the  autumn  they  wan- 
der from  their  usual  haunts,  and  sometimes  appear  at  St.  Michael  or 
elsewhere  on  the  barren  tundra. 

The  snowy  owl,  the  arctic  member  of  this  family,  makes  its  home 
on  the  open  tundra.  It  is  more  diurnal  than  most  other  owls,  and  in 
winter  may  be  seen  gliding  over  the  snow  close  to  the  surface,  when 
it  is  difficult  to  follow  with  the  eye  on  account  of  its  lack  of  color. 
During  a  sledge-trip  south  of  the  Yukon,  one  December,  I  saw  a 
freshly  killed  snowy  owl  whose  immaculate  plumage  was  suffused 
throughout  with  a  rich  and  beautiful  shade  of  lemon-yellow,  exactly 
as  a  salmon-color  or  a  rosy  red  suffuses  the  plumage  of  certain 
gulls  and  terns  in  spring.  The  following  morning  this  lovely  tinge 
had  almost  completely  vanished,  only  a  trace  of  it  remaining  under 
the  wings  and  near  the  bases  of  the  feathers. 

Ravens  occur  throughout  Alaska,  and  are  abundant  along  the 
southern  coast  and  on  the  Aleutian  Islands,  where  they  come  familiarly 
about  the  settlements,  and  have  attracted  the  interested  comment  of 
visitors  since  the  early  days  of  the  Russian  occupation.  At  Unalaska 

31 


the  ravens  live  in  large  numbers  about  the  village,  perching  on  the 
roofs  of  the  houses,  and  hopping  about  among  domestic  fowls  as  famil- 
iarly as  the  chickens  themselves.  These  ravens  spend  much  of  their 
time  on  the  wing,  circling  high  over  the  town  and  bay,  and  perform- 
ing a  series  of  extraordinary  evolutions.  They  sometimes  drop  a 
long  distance  in  a  series  of  heels-over-head  revolutions  like  an  acro- 
bat, ending  in  a  long  glide  on  outspread  wings  or  in  some  other  ec- 
centric performance,  always  accompanied  by  explosive  cork-drawing 
sounds  and  a  variety  of  other  cries  and  croakings.  They  appear  to 
enjoy  especially  making  these  playful  flights  during  hard  gales,  when 
the  entire  raven-colony  will  take  part.  They  soar,  turn,  and  twist,  on 
facile  wing,  and  fill  the  air  with  a  medley  of  strange  cries,  as  if  taking 
impish  joy  in  the  fierce  wind  roaring  across  the  rugged  mountain- 
sides and  beating  the  surface  of  the  bay  into  a  froth  of  flying  spray. 
Although  seeming  so  jocular  in  mood,  these  black-garbed  birds  are 
remorseless  pirates,  robbing  other  birds  of  their  eggs  and  young 
whenever  opportunity  offers. 

Bird-Life  of  the  Sea  Islands 

My  first  approach  to  Alaskan  shores  was  about  the  middle  of 
May,  when  we  neared  Akutan  Pass  on  our  way  to  Unalaska  Harbor. 


PALLAS'S    MURRES    ON   BOGOSLOF    ISLAND    IN    BERING   SEA 
From  a  Photograph  by  A.  C.   Bent 

The  morning  was  clear  and  absolutely  calm,  the  only  breaks  in  the 
glassy  surface  of  the  swelling  sea  those  made  by  the  wake  of  the 
steamer,  and  the  ripples  circling  from  the  breasts  of  thousands  of 
water-fowl — murres,  auklets,  gulls,  and  fulmars — and  a  few  fur-seals. 

The  swarming  abundance  of  bird-life  about  the  rocky  shores  of 
the  Aleutian  chain,  and  of  the  islands  of  Bering  Sea,  adds  wonderfully 
to  the  interest  of  these  frowning  coasts.  The  cliff-walled  shores  of  the 
Fur-Seal  group,  and  of  the  islets  in  Bering  Strait,  which  stand  like 

32 


stepping-stones  between  America  and  Asia,  are  occupied  in  spring 
and  summer  by  uncounted  millions  of  murres,  murrelets,  auklets, 
cormorants,  and  gulls,  nesting  in  crevices  and  on  ledges  along  the 
ragged  fronts  and  slopes  of  the  rocky  cliffs,  which  often  rise  a  thou- 
sand feet  or  more  sheer  from  the  stormy  sea  at  their  base.  When 
startled  from  their  perches  on  the  Diomede  and  King  islands  in 
Bering  Strait  the  murres  and  auklets  fill  the  air  with  whirring  forms, 
so  that  the  islets  appear  like  huge  bee-hives  in  swarming  time.  For- 
tunately the  vast  nurseries  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  are  now  set  aside 
as  National  bird-refuges,  where,  through  all  the  coming  years,  the 
birds  may  rear  their  young  in  comparative  safety. 

The  Aleutian  Islands  are  swept  by  so  many  gales  and  fierce  local 
storms,  or  "woollys,"  that  if  birds  are  to  exist  there  they  must  con- 
tinue their  affairs  despite  them  and  they  have  become  able  to  a  •  so. 
As  a  consequence,  even  in  the  fiercest  gales,  when  a  man  has  hard 
work  to  face  the  wind,  he  may  hear  the  ptarmigan  crowing  on  the 
hills  and  song  sparrows  and  wrens  singing  in  the  little  valleys  and 
coves  near  the  shore. 

The  number  of  land-birds  on  these  islands  is  extremely  limited 
nevertheless.  Most  notable  are  the  ptarmigan.  These  are  close  rela- 
tives of  the  rock  ptarmigan  of  the  mainland,  and  are  found  throughout 
the  Aleutian  chain.  Owing  to  climatic  influences  and  isolation  the 
ptarmigan  on  each  of  the  larger  islands  or  groups  of  islands  have  be- 
come a  little  different  from  the  others  and  naturalists  have  recognized 
seven  kinds  among  them. 

On  Akutan  Island  I  once  saw  an  Aleutian  wren,  a  little  brown 
bird,  clinging  to  a  twig  of  dwarf  willow  a  foot  or  so  high  on  the  crest 
of  a  cliff,  and  pouring  forth  its  soul  in  melodious  song,  while  a  heavy 
gale  swept  over  the  island  and  whipped  the  bird  on  its  perch  back 
and  forth  until  it  seemed  as  if  the  songster  must  be  torn  loose  and 
blown  away  to  sea.  Another  conspicuous  habitue  is  a  gigantic 
song  sparrow,  so  strongly  built  that  he  can  well  withstand  his  harsh 
surroundings.  A  large  brown  finch  with  rosy  sides  also  makes  its 
home  there;  and  three  species  of  snowflakes  dwell  on  the  barren 
coasts  and  islands  of  Bering  Sea,  their  contrasting  black-and-white 
plumage  making  them  conspicuous  on  the  dull  brown  tundra.  The 
presence  of  eagles  and  certain  other  birds  of  prey  is  elsewhere 
alluded  to. 

On  the  heavily  wooded  islands  of  southeastern  Alaska  the  bird- 
life  is  closely  related  to  that  of  the  adjoining  humid  and  forested  area 
of  British  Columbia  and  the  coast  of  Washington.  Among  the  most 

33 


interesting  of  the  birds  here  is  the  rufous  hummingbird — a  dainty  lit- 
tle species,  the  male  of  which  is  bright  rusty  rufous  with  a  flaming 
coppery-red  gorget.  These  pygmy  birds  rear  their  young  along  the 
coast  northward  to  the  61st  parallel  of  latitude  in  Prince  William 
Sound,  where  they  endure  a  raw  and  extremely  inclement  summer 
climate  in  a  region  of  gigantic  glaciers  and  of  mountain-sides  clothed 
in  snow. 

The  Bird-Year  at  St.  Michael 

During  the  years  I  lived  on  St.  Michael  Island,  the  coming  and 
going  of  birds  about  the  small  group  of  log-houses  which  formed  the 
trading-post  were  constant  features  of  interest;  and  the  arrival  of  the 
birds  in  spring  was  always  heralded  with  especial  joy.  During  the 
last  days  of  April  or  first  of  May  everyone  is  on  the  alert  to  note  the 
first  goose  of  the  season.  The  ground  at  this  time  is  still  covered  with 
snow,  and  the  sea  overlaid  with  the  heavy  pack-ice  to  the  far  hori- 
zon, and  zero-temperatures  are  common.  ,  In  the  interior,  however, 
the  season  is  farther  advanced,  and  from  there  come  solitary  geese 
spying  out  the  land  along  the  coast  from  one  to  two  weeks  in  advance 
of  the  main  body,  which  appear  to  be  waiting  behind  the  horizon 
until  the  sun  has  bared  most  of  the  broad  tundras,  flooded  the  ponds, 
and  set  icy  streams  running  everywhere  over  the  country.  These  first 
arrivals  come  singly  from  the  direction  of  the  lower  Yukon,  flying 
high  over  head,  and  uttering  loud,  clanging  notes  as  they  go  speed- 
ing in  a  wide  circle  over  the  wintry  landscape.  The  passage  of  the 
first  of  these  harbingers  of  returning  life  and  plenty  is  welcomed  with 
exultation  by  the  fur-traders  as  well  as  by  the  Indians  and  Eskimos. 
At  the  loud  cry  "Goose!  Goose!"  shouted  joyously  by  the  first  to 
see  the  newcomer,  everyone,  young  and  old,  hurries  out  of  doors, 
shouting  and  dancing  in  a  state  of  excitement  difficult  to  appreciate 
by  one  who  has  not  gone  through  those  long,  slow,  winter  months 
in  the  far  North. 

The  yearly  calendar  of  the  birds  about  the  houses  usually  began 
some  cheerless  morning  in  May,  on  the  border-line  between  winter 
and  spring,  when  we  were  greeted  by  the  sharp  tsip  tsip  of  a  tree  spar- 
row that  had  arrived  over  night  and  taken  possession  of  adjacent 
weed-patches.  As  the  weather  became  milder  the  sparrows  increased 
and,  in  company  with  plump,  rosy-breasted  little  redpolls,  they  were 
seen  everywhere,  from  the  top  of  the  wind-vane  to  the  sun-dial  out- 
side the  kitchen-window,  whence  they  peeped  in  curiously.  As  the 
snow  decreased,  both  the  tree  sparrows  and  redpolls  drifted  away  to 
prepare  their  summer  homes  among  the  alders  on  some  warm  hill- 

34 


slope.  Meanwhile  the  savanna  sparrows  had  arrived  and  were  en- 
livening the  muddy  places,  running  in  and  out  among  the  dead  grasses 
in  playful  pursuit  of  one  another.  At  the  first  alarm  they  would 
dive  into  the  nearest  cover  of  grass  and  weeds,  only  to  reappear 
quickly  on  the  far  side.  As  the  season  advanced  the  males  mounted  a 
wood-pile  or  other  conspicuous  elevation,  and  uttered  their  weak,  un- 
musical songs. 

By  the  15th  or  20th  of  May  the  white-crowned  sparrow  made  its 
appearance,  and,  capturing  the  top  of  the  wood-pile  from  its  smaller 
relative,  favored  us  with  its  sweetly  modulated  song.  About  the 
same  time  the  common  barn  swallows  were  seen  circl:ng  about,  bub- 
bling over  with  happy  chuckling  notes,  as  if  rejoicing  to  be  back  again 
after  a  winter  in  a  far  southern  clime.  By  the  middle  of  May  the  fox 
sparrows  were  back,  their  first  arrival  being  usually  announced  some 
fine  evening  by  their  clear  thrush-like  whistle,  usually  from  the  top 
of  the  cross  on  the  old  Russian  church. 

As  June  arrived  we  caught  glimpses  of  an  occasional  black- 
cap, or  a  yellow  warbler,  as  one  or  both  species  paid  brief  visits 
to  a  little  garden  by  the  kitchen.  The  barn  swallows  were  now  hard 
at  work  building  nests  about  the  eaves,  struggling  with  unwieldy 
feathers  or  trying  to  carry  off  straws.  This  work  was  commonly 
varied  by  fierce  battles  between  the  pugnacious  males,  which  often 
rolled  about  on  the  ground  and  pummeled  one  another  with  surpris- 
ing tenacity  and  vigor.  All  obstacles  were  finally  overcome,  and  in 
various  snug  nooks  under  the  eaves  the  birds  guarded  their  treasure- 
filled  nests.  At  the  same  time  a  pair  of  savanna  sparrows  kept  ward 
over  their  egg-laden  nest  behind  the  ice-house, 

Spring  passed  into  summer,  and  from  the  middle  of  July  until 
well  into  August  small  birds  made  the  vicinity  of  the  houses  a  gen- 
eral resort.  The  redpolls  came  in  family  parties  all  clad  in  dull  colors, 
for  the  rosy  flush  of  youth  had  been  worn  from  the  parental  breast 
by  the  cares  of  family  life.  These  little  plebeians  stuff  themselves 
with  the  good  things  they  find  in  the  garden  and  weed-patches,  chirp- 
ing and  frolicking  merrily.  They  infested  the  place,  flitting  about, 
one  moment  see-sawing  on  a  tall  weed  and  the  next  hopping  careless- 
ly along  the  walk  before  one,  or  peering  down  from  the  eaves  with 
liliputian  gravity.  In  return  for  this  friendliness  they  were  prime 
favorites  with  all.  The  redpolls  do  not  come  alone,  for  in  the  yard, 
and  outside  it,  the  bare  ground  is  now  the  gathering  place  for  young 
Lapland  longspurs,  nearly  as  heedless  of  our  presence  as  the  redpolls. 
They  are,  however,  more  sedate  and  business-like,  and  appear  intent 
on  the  search  for  food,  running  from  place  to  place,  their  bills  pointing 

35 


down  and  eyes  intently  scanning  the  ground,  heedless  of  their  sur 
roundings,  until  a  step  close  by  frightens  them  away  a  short  distance, 
where  the  search  for  food  begins  again.     They  lack  the  pretty  con- 
fiding ways  of  the  redpoll,  and  awaken  but  little  interest. 

The  young  yellow  wagtails  were  also  numerous  at  this  time,  and 
searched  damp  spots  in  and  about  the  yard  for  insects,  their  long 
slender  tails  balancing  up  and  down  with  a  jaunty  air.  When  the 
tide  went  down  they  gathered  along  high-water  mark  to  feast  on  the 
fare  there  provided.  Flitting  from  rock  to  rock,  or  picking  their  way 
daintily  from  place  to  place,  they  offered  a  pleasing  picture  until, 
their  hunger  satisfied,  they  arose  and  passed  one  by  one  to  the  bare 
hillsides,  where  they  remained  until  hunger  called  them  back  again. 

In  the  latter  part  of  July  the  garden  was  the  center  of  attraction 
for  several  species  of  warblers,  which  reveled  among  the  insects  of 
the  lettuce  and  turnip  beds.  The  black-capped  flycatcher  was  the 
most  numerous,  although  at  times  the  black-poll  warbler  was  about 
equally  common.  Now  and  then  a  yellow  warbler  enlivened  the  place 
like  a  ray  of  sunshine.  Numerous  young  golden-crowned  warblers, 
and  an  occasional  willow  warbler,  appeared  at  this  time,  and  searched 
the  crevices  of  the  fences,  and  even  the  eaves  of  the  houses,  for  in- 
sects. Along  wet  paths  leading  away  from  the  houses,  and  some- 
times from  the  yard  itself,  stray  water-wagtails  and  titlarks  were 
sometimes  started. 

Golden-crowned  and  white-crowned  sparrows  claimed  their 
share  of  attention  at  this  time,  as  they  levied  their  tax  upon  the 
garden,  or  flitted  from  fence  to  fence,  ready  to  dive  into  a  weed-patch 
at  the  first  alarm.  The  fox  sparrow  returned  for  a  short  and  timid 
farewell  before  seeking  winter  quarters,  and  was  followed  by  the 
tree  sparrow. 

Stray  robins  showed  themselves  once  or  twice  during  the  sum- 
mer, but  a  single  brief  visit  to  the  garden  was  enough  for  them.  A 
few  gray-cheeked  thrushes  usually  appeared  silently  for  a  day  or 
two.  More  rarely  still  a  wheatear  appeared,  skulking  about  the  ends 
of  the  houses,  then  hastening  to  take  shelter  in  crevices  among  the 
stones  on  the  beach.  A  few  white-bellied  swallows  fraternized  a  few 
days  with  the  barn  swallows  before  going  south ;  and  the  latter  were 
busy  during  August  preparing  their  young  for  the  long  journey  to 
warmer  lands. 

Sometimes  black-breasted  turnstones  visited  wet  places  about  the 
houses,  while  the  semipalmated  sandpiper  was  always  numerous, 
adventurous  individuals  even  passing  under  the  fence  and  investigat- 

36 


ing  the  yard  after  a  rain.  Once  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  golden  plover 
making  free  of  the  area  inside  the  fence,  but  it  hastily  departed. 

As  the  end  of  August  approached  the  sprightly  forms  which  had 
enlivened  the  surroundings  one  by  one  departed,  so  imperceptibly 
that  scarcely  was  one  missed  before  we  found  that  of  all  the  goodly 
company  only  a  few  stragglers  remained.  At  this  time  we  usually 
had  a  visit  from  one  or  two  downy  woodpeckers,  which  clung  pen- 
sively to  the  rough  logs  in  the  sides  of  the  buildings,  apparently 
dazed  to  find  the  tree-trunks  all  extending  horizontally.  After  a  short 
stay  they  would  leave  us,  headed  straight  back  for  the  interior,  where 
the  trees  were  in  their  proper  position. 

During  September  we  were  visited  by  various  birds  of  prey. 
Every  autumn  brought  one  or  two  hawk  owls  to  perch  on  the  wind- 
vane  or  the  flagstaff;  while  young  goshawks  and  gyrfalcons  circled 
about,  frequently  alighting  for  a  short  time  upon  the  fence  or  any  con- 
venient post.  More  rarely  a  pigeon  hawk  appeared  for  a  moment  and 
then  vanished.  Several  times  during  the  evening  at  this  season  I 
surprised  a  short-eared  owl  perched  on  the  fence  or  hovering  over 
the  yard,  probably  attracted  by  the  tundra-mice  which  gathered  about 
the  buildings  at  this  time.  One  October  a  great  horned  owl  used  our 
wood-pile  as  a  lookout  station  for  several  successive  evenings. 

As  winter  set  in  occasional  parties  of  black-capped  titmice  ap- 
peared for  a  day  or  two,  and  less  often  a  few  Hudsonian  titmice.  Both 
spent  their  time  busily  climbing  about  the  walls  of  the  old  log-houses, 
or  examining  the  weed-patches  nearby,  all  the  time  cheerily  uttering 
their  familiar  dee-dee-dee;  but  at  last  hurrying  away  as  if  without  a 
moment  to  spare.  Then  followed  long  blanks  broken  only  by  a  stray 
party  of  redpolls  from  the  interior,  or,  as  happened  a  few  times,  by 
the  visit  of  a  ptarmigan,  which  would  perch  on  the  roof  of  the  ware- 
house, look  with  startled  surprise  at  the  men  and  dogs  below,  and  then 
precipitately  depart. 

Thus  the  bird-year  went  round  at  this  barren  place  by  the  shore 
of  Bering  Sea,  and  gave  evidence  that  in  the  remotest  spots  some  of 
these  companionable  and  interesting  habitants  are  always  to  be  found, 
ready  to  enliven  the  solitude  for  whomsoever  has  eyes  to  see  and 
sympathy  to  appreciate  them. 

Spring  and  Summer  on  the  Tundras 

When  the  snow  leaves  the  marshy  tundras — those  extensive 
frozen  barrens  fringing  the  Alaskan  coast  of  Bering  Sea — they  be- 
come alive  with  a  winged  host  wonderful  in  its  numbers  and  variety. 

37 


The  last  days  of  May  and  the  first  week  of  June  are  notable  for 
their  clear  and  pleasant  days,  during  which  the  busy  life  of  the 
feathered  residents  goes  rapidly  on  toward  its  culmination  in  nest- 
building.  Occasional  short  storms  occur  at  this  season ;  and  I  was 
much  interested  to  note  that  the  assembled  water-fowl  had  to  some 
extent  the  power  of  recognizing  the  approaching  storms  as  sensi- 
tively as  the  barometer.  The  evening  before  the  onset  of  one  of  these 
spring  storms  was  commonly  heralded  on  the  tundra,  even  in  the 
clearest  weather,  by  wonderful  outbursts  of  cries  from  the  larger 
water-fowl,  and  these  would  continue  for  half  an  hour  before  the 
birds  settled  down  for  the  night.  Thousands  of  birds  took  part  in 


PACIFIC   KITTIWAKES,    NESTING    ON   WALRUS 

ISLAND    IN  BERING   SEA. 
From  a  Photograph  by  A.  C.  Bent 

producing  the  tremendous  chorus.  It  was  made  up  of  the  notes  of 
numberless  loons  in  small  ponds,  joined  with  the  rolling  cries  of 
cranes,  the  bugling  of  flocks  of  swans  on  the  large  ponds,  the  clanging 
of  innumerable  geese,  the  hoarse  calls  of  various  ducks,  and  the 
screams  of  gulls  and  terns,  all  in  a  state  of  great  excitement,  appar- 
ently trying  to  outdo  one  another  in  strength  of  voice.  The  result 
was  a  volume  of  wildly  harmonious  music,  so  impressive  that  these 
concerts  still  remain  among  my  most  vivid  memories  of  the  North. 

It  was  a  complete  surprise  to  me,  during  my  first  spring  in  the 
North,  to  learn  that  a  large  number  of  waders,  and  some  of  the  ducks, 
utter  series  of  consecutive  musical  notes  during  the  mating  period 


38 


that  are  as  clearly  songs  as  the  notes  of  a  robin.  Some  of  the  songs 
of  these  birds  are  harsh,  and  others  grotesque,  but  there  are  no  mutes 
in  this  great  congregation.  The  golden  plovers,  admirable  in  their 
handsome  breeding-dress,  utter  an  extraordinarily  plaintive  and  mu- 
sical series  of  notes.  They  stand  like  beautiful  statuettes  on  the 
tundra  as  they  give  their  song,  sometimes  several  times  in  succes- 
sion from  the  same  spot  before  moving  on. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  songsters  among  the  waders  is  the 
western  semipalmated  sandpiper,  which  is  present  along  this  coast 
in  great  abundance.  As  the  snow  disappears  from  the  low  ground 
about  the  10th  or  15th  of  May,  and  every  pond,  still  covered  with 
ice,  is  bordered  by  a  ring  of  water,  these  gentle  birds  arrive  on  the 
tundras  of  the  Yukon  Delta  and  Norton  Sound.  By  the  end  of  the 
month  they  are  extremely  numerous,  and  their  gentleness  and  trust- 
ing behavior  render  them  very  attractive.  Among  the  many  pretty 
bird-romances  going  on  at  this  time  none  is  more  charming  than 
the  courtships  of  these  delicate  sandpipers.  They  forsake  the  borders 
of  icy  pools  and  scatter  in  twos  and  threes  over  the  tundra,  choosing 
dry  knolls  and  tussock-covered  areas.  Here  they  trip  daintily  over 
the  moss,  in  and  out  among  tufts  of  grass,  never  showing  the  pug- 
nacity so  common  among  some  species  at  this  time.  The  female 
modestly  avoids  the  male  as  he  pays  his  homage  by  running  to  and 
fro  before  her  to  show  his  tiny  form  to  best  advantage.  At  times 
his  heart  beats  high  with  pride  and  he  trails  his  wings,  elevates  and 
partly  spreads  his  tail,  and  struts  before  his  charmer  with  all  the 
pompous  vanity  of  a  pygmy  turkey-cock.  Again,  filled  with  rapture, 
the  sanguine  lover  springs  from  the  earth,  rises  ten  or  fifteen  yards  on 
vibrating  wings,  and  poising  in  mid-air  hovers  for  nearly  a  minute 
in  the  same  spot,  while  he  pours  forth  a  series  of  musical  trills  that 
vary  in  intensity  and  produce  pleasant  cadences.  During  this  song 
the  performer's  wings  vibrate  so  rapidly  they  appear  to  keep  time 
with  the  trilling  notes,  which  may  be  likened  to  the  running  down 
of  a  small  spring,  producing  a  fine,  high-pitched,  buzzing  or  whir- 
ring note.  As  the  song  ends  the  bird  raises  its  wings  high  over  its 
back  in  a  V-shaped  form,  and  floats  slowly  to  the  ground,  at  the  same 
time  uttering  a  deeper  and  richer,  or  more  throaty,  trill,  ending  as 
the  ground  is  reached.  These  sandpipers  have  also  a  variety  of  low, 
happy,  twittering  notes,  addressed  by  the  male  to  the  female,  and 
also  heard  when  he  is  feeding.  The  females  are  usually  devoted 
mothers,  and  are  often  astonishingly  fearless  in  staying  by  their  eggs 
or  young  when  danger  threatens,  at  the  same  time  uttering  low 
plaintive  notes  of  alarm. 

39 


Another  of  the  tundra-loving  waders,  the  pectoral  sandpiper,  in- 
flates the  loose  skin  of  its  throat  and  breast  into  a  balloon-shaped  bag, 
and  runs  to  and  fro  in  front  of  the  female  while  he  utters  a  low, 
musical,  booming  note;  or  he  will  fly  up  twenty  or  thirty  yards  into 
the  air  and  then  float  down  on  up-raised  wings,  sounding  the  same 
note. 

The  little  pools  scattered  abundantly  over  the  tundra  are  fre- 
quented in  spring  and  summer  by  northern  phalaropes,  pretty, 
graceful  members  of  a  family  of  small  waders  remarkable  for  revers- 
ing, during  the  mating-season,  all  ordinary  avian  habits  and  cus- 
toms. The  female  is  larger  and  much  more  handsomely  colored 
than  the  male,  and  pays  court  to  him  in  order  to  secure  a  mate,  just 
as  does  the  male  among  other  birds.  As  the  season  comes  on  when 
the  flames  of  bird-love  mount  high,  the  dully  colored  male  of  the 
northern  phalarope  swims  about  the  pools,  apparently  heedless  of  the 
attending  fair  ones.  Such  stoical  indifference  is  too  much  for  some 
of  them  to  bear.  A  female  in  all  her  finery  of  nuptial  plumage  glides 
close  to  him  and  bows  her  head  in  pretty  submissiveness,  but  he  turns 
away,  pecks  at  a  bit  of  food  and  moves  off;  she  follows,  and  he  quick- 
ens his  speed,  but  in  vain ;  he  is  her  choice,  and  she  proudly  arches  her 
neck  and  in  mazy  circles  passes  and  repasses  before  the  harassed 
bachelor.  He  turns  his  breast  first  to  one  side  and  then  to  the  other, 
as  if  to  escape,  but  there  before  him  is  his  gentle  wooer,  ever 
pressing  her  ardent  suit.  Frequently  he  takes  flight  to  another  part 
of  the  pool,  all  to  no  purpose.  If,  with  affected  indifference,  he 
searches  for  food,  she  swims  by  his  side,  almost  touching  him,  and  at 
intervals  rises  a  foot  or  two  above  his  back  and  makes  half  a 
dozen  quick  wing-strokes,  producing  a  rapid  series  of  sharp  whistling 
notes.  Time  and  importunity  at  length  have  their  effect.  The  male 
accepts  a  partner,  and  the  female  no  longer  needs  to  use  her  seductive 
blandishments  to  draw  his  attention  to  her.  About  the  first  of  June 
the  dry  side  of  a  knoll  near  some  small  pond  sees  four  dark,  hand- 
somely marked  eggs  laid  in  a  little  hollow,  sometimes  without  lining, 
or  with  a  few  carelessly  added  grass-blades.  Here  the  captive  male 
is  introduced  to  new  duties,  and  spends  much  of  his  time  brooding 
the  eggs,  while  the  female  idles  about  the  pool  near  by.  The  newly 
hatched  young  are  beautiful  little  balls  of  buff  and  brown. 

The  most  musical  notes  among  the  ducks  are  those  of  the  old- 
squaw,  a  species  common  from  the  upper  Yukon  to  the  sea-coast. 
During  the  mating-season  the  drake  gives  a  series  of  deep,  reed-like 
notes,  so  melodious  that  Jack  McQuesten  and  other  fur-traders  of 

40 


I  i 


the  upper  Yukon  region  aptly  named  it  the  organ  duck.  These  notes 
sound  remarkably  musical  in  the  quiet  twilight  hours  of  the  arctic 
spring  night.  During  his  courtship  the  male  old-squaw  often  swims 
back  and  forth  before  the  female,  his  long  tail-feathers  pointing  up 
at  a  steep  angle  and  vibrating  rapidly  from  side  to  side  while  he 
utters  his  mellow  notes  at  short  intervals.  If  he  becomes  too  pressing 
in  his  suit  the  female  dives,  and  is  instantly  followed  by  the  male;  a 
moment  later  they  appear  on  the  surface,  take  wing,  and  a  chase 
ensues,  the  two  plunging  below  the  smooth  surface  of  the  water  at 
full  speed,  then  reappearing  in  full  flight  some  distance  away,  only  to 
repeat  the  performance  again  and  again.  Two  or  three  males  some- 
times join  in  this  playful  pursuit  of  a  female  until  she  finally  makes  a 
choice  and  retires  to  some  secluded  pool  with  her  mate.  During  these 
courtship-flights  the  males  often  continue  uttering  their  love-notes, 
and  make  a  very  pretty  chorus. 

The  mating  loons,  ducks,  geese,  swans,  cranes,  waders,  gulls, 
and  other  birds,  now  present  a  bewildering  variety  of  attractions 
to  the  lover  of  wild  life.  Several  species  of  geese  are  the  most  clam- 
orous of  all  in  their  wild  outcries.  The  harsh,  rolling  notes  of  the 
cranes,  and  the  raucous  notes  of  the  many  red-throated,  and  of  the 
Pacific  black-throated  loons,  add  greatly  to  the  general  sense  of  wild- 
ness  on  the  tundras,  especially  when  the  cries  of  the  loons  break 
the  general  stillness  that  covers  the  tundra  during  the  twilight  hours 
of  the  northern  summer  night. 

By  the  last  of  August,  or  during  September,  the  birds  have  re- 
gained their  wing-feathers,  the  tundras  are  alive  with  them,  and  the 
air  resounds  with  the  clatter  of  many  geese  calling.  Ducks,  geese, 
curlews,  and  other  birds,  seek  the  dry,  sunny  slopes  where  ripe  heath- 
berries  (Empetrum  nigrum)  abound  at  this  time,  and  feed  upon 
them  until  they  become  extremely  fat. 

Back  from  the  barrens  that  border  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  and 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  much  of  the  interior  is  overgrown  with  forests  of 
birches,  spruces,  and  other  subarctic  trees.  Small  birds  of  many  sorts 
come  to  this  wooded  area  each  summer  to  rear  their  young;  and  sev- 
eral of  them,  such  as  the  intermediate  white-crowned  sparrow,  the 
western  tree  sparrow,  and  the  fox  sparrow,  range  down  to  the  coast  of 
Bering  Sea  wherever  little  patches  of  stunted  alders  and  willows 
occur.  This  area,  north  to  the  limit  of  tree-growth,  is  enlivened 
through  the  summer  by  the  songs  of  the  gray-cheeked  thrush,  the 
robin,  and  the  varied  thrush.  The  white-bellied  tree  swallow,  and 
the  bank  swallow,  share  the  interior  with  the  barn  swallow;  the  last- 

41 


named,  however,  comes  to  the  coast,  and  appears  as  much  at  home 
in  a  variety  of  northern  conditions  as  it  is  under  milder  skies.  Here, 
as  in  the  South,  they  take  advantage  of  buildings  for  nesting  sites, 
gathering  in  abundance  at  the  village  of  Unalaska,  and  at  St.  Michael, 
where  their  neat  forms  and  cheerful  notes  seem  curiously  strange 
in  so  bleak  surroundings.  On  the  tundra,  several  miles  southeast  of 
St.  Michael,  I  found  one  spring  an  ancient  Eskimo  winter  hut,  half 
underground,  covered  with  a  mound  of  earth  that  was  falling  in  from 
long  disuse.  As  I  approached  it  a  barn  swallow  suddenly  flew  out, 
and  I  found  her  nest  with  newly  hatched  young  on  one  of  the  small 
timbers  supporting  the  roof.  On  the  north  shore  of  Kotzebue  Sound, 
opposite  Chamisso  Island,  directly  under  the  Arctic  Circle,  I  found 
another  nest,  built  on  a  small  ledge  in  a  narrow  vertical  cleft  in  the 
rock  into  which  the  waves  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  swept  freely  back  and 
forth,  only  a  few  feet  below. 

Conspicuous  among  the  land-birds  of  the  interior  also  seen  on  the 
coastal  barrens  is  the  willow  ptarmigan.  In  spring  the  white  feathers 
on  the  head  and  neck  of  the  male  are  replaced  by  brown,  and  a  thin 
fleshy  comb,  bright  red  in  color  and  with  a  thin  fringe  on  its  upper 
border,  develops  over  each  eye.  These  combs  fold  down  and  are  over- 
laid by  the  feathers  on  the  side  of  the  crown  except  when  the  bird  is 
excited,  when  they  are  raised  and  become  conspicuous  additions  to 
its  nuptial  adornment.  After  the  mating-season  these  fleshy  crests 
fade,  shrink,  and  become  invisible  until  the  approach  of  another 
summer. 

With  the  appearance  of  the  brown  feathers  on  the  head  and  neck 
in  spring  these  birds  become  extremely  active,  noisy  and  pugnacious. 
They  are  then  the  dominant  form  of  life  on  the  tundras  until  the 
water-fowl  have  arrived  in  full  force.  The  cock-ptarmigan  seeks  the 
tops  of  slight  elevations,  and  now  and  then  springs  on  rapid  wings 
a  few  yards  into  the  air,  uttering  a  loud,  harsh,  cackling  or  crowing 
note  of  challenge.  Here  and  there  on  all  sides  other  knolls  are  occu- 
pied by  hot-blooded  rivals,  one  of  which  soon  comes  in  swift  flight, 
with  ruffled  neck-feathers,  to  drive  away  the  competitor  for  the  favors 
of  the  duller-colored  females  scattered  inconspicuously  about  the 
vicinity.  The  challenger  sees  the  enemy  coming  like  an  animated 
white  ball,  and  flies  a  short  distance  to  meet  him  in  mid-air.  They 
often  strike  in  full  head-on  collision,  and  feathers  fly  as  the  combat- 
ants drop  to  the  ground.  The  fight  is  then  continued,  sometimes  on 
the  ground  and  sometimes  in  the  air,  in  true  "rough-and-tumble" 
fashion  until  one  has  had  enough.  Then  the  vanquished  one  dashes 

42 


away  in  full  flight,  pursued  for  a  time  by  the  victor.  He  quickly  re- 
turns, however,  and  springing  into  the  air  from  the  original  knoll 
again  sends  out  his  cry  of  defiance  to  all  comers.  During  the  last 
half  of  May  along  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  these  ptarmigan  are  notice- 
able everywhere,  and  the  air  is  filled  with  their  loud  insistent  notes. 
A  little  later,  when  the  mating  is  over  and  the  females  are  hidden 
away  on  nests,  the  males  completely  lose  their  boisterous  pugnacity, 
and  are  almost  as  quiet  and  inconspicuous  as  their  mates. 

Additional  Notes  by  the  Editor 

A  few  explanatory  notes,  largely  derived  from  Mr.  Nelson's  valu- 
able and  interesting  Report,  may  be  added  to  the  foregoing  lively  ac- 
count of  the  bird-life  of  the  Alaskan  tundras. 

The  loons  of  this  district  are  of  five  different  species,  namely, 
the  widely  distributed  "common  loon,"  or  great  northern  diver ;  the 
yellow-billed ;  the  black-throated ;  the  Pacific ;  and  the  red-throated 
loon.  They  are  distinguished  chiefly  by  their  varying  colors  about 
the  head  and  neck.  In  the  common  loon  the  black  head  and  neck  are 
in  summer  deep  black,  crossed  on  the  throat  by  a  bar  or  by  transverse 
streaks  of  white;  in  the  Pacific  species  the  top  of  the  head  and  the 
hind  neck  are  pale,  smoky  gray,  the  throat  and  fore  neck  glossed  with 
bronzy  green  or  purple;  in  the  black-throated  loon  the  head  and 
neck  are  deep  leaden  gray  above,  and  are  glossed  beneath  with  velvety 
purple ;  and  in  the  red-throated  the  fore  neck  in  summer  is  rich  chest- 
nut in  color.  This  last  is  the  smallest  of  the  lot.  The  largest  of  the 
loons  is  the  yellow-billed,  whose  head  and  neck  are  glossed  with 
violet-blue.  The  habits,  nests,  and  eggs  of  all  are  similar.  The  eggs 
number  two,  and  are  of  an  elongated  oval  form,  deep  brown  or  olive 
in  tint,  and  sparsely  speckled. 

The  black  guillemot  mentioned  is  a  circumpolar  species  belong- 
ing to  the  Arctic  sea-front  and  islands,  and  rarely  seen  south  of 
Kotzebue  Sound. 

The  jaegers,  or  skuas,  as  they  are  more  often  termed  in  the  North- 
Atlantic  region,  are  wide-wandering  oceanic  gulls  of  predatory  habits, 
that  get  their  living  mainly  by  robbing  their  smaller  brethren.  They 
are  large,  and  exceedingly  swift  and  powerful  on  the  wing.  The 
Eskimos  attribute  to  the  parasitic  jaeger  remarkable  prowess,  and  call 
it  "the  cannibal"  because,  as  they  say,  it  formerly  captured  and  ate 
men.  This  jaeger  is  far  more  agile  and  bold  than  the  pomarine,  which 
it  will  drive  from  its  neighborhood ;  but  it  is  not  so  graceful  in  flight 
as  the  long-tailed  one.  They  harry  the  gulls  and  terns  to  make  them 
disgorge  fish  just  caught,  and  then  swoop  down  beneath  the  falling 

43 


morsel  and  snatch  it  with  open  mouth.  The  pomarine  is  confined  in 
summer  to  the  most  northern  coasts,  but  the  other  two  abound  all 
over  the  tundras  and  nearer  Aleutian  Islands,  laying  two,  dark-green, 
profusely  spotted  eggs  on  the  bare  ground.  In  summer  they  fly  far 
inland,  catching  field-mice  and  lemmings,  robbing  the  nests  of  ducks 
and  other  birds,  searching  the  beaches  and  river-banks  for  dead  fish, 
and  even  eating  berries. 

The  biggest  of  the  Alaskan  gulls  is  the  glaucous,  or  "burgomas- 
ter"— the  first  birds  every  year  to  reach  the  coasts  that  girt  the  polar 
seas.  "Their  hoarse  cries,"  Nelson  tells  us,  "are  welcome  sounds  to 
the  seal-hunter  as  he  wanders  over  the  ice-fields  far  out  to  sea 
in  early  spring.  They  become  more  and  more  numerous  until  they 
are  very  common.  They  wander  restlessly  along  the  coast  until  the 
ponds  open  on  the  marshes  near  the  sea,  and  then,  about  the  last  half 
of  May,  they  are  found  straying  singly  or  in  pairs  about  the  marshy 
ponds,  where  they  seek  their  summer  homes.  Here  they  are  among 
the  noisiest  of  the  wildfowl." 

Not  all,  however,  go  to  the  remote  North,  for  the  burgomasters 
spread  all  over  the  coast-regions  from  the  Aleutians  northward,  and 
in  June  construct  their  nests  on  some  islet  in  a  marsh  or  pond,  form- 
ing a  conspicuous  hillock,  two  or  more  feet  high,  made  of  tufts  of 
grass  and  moss  torn  up  near  by,  and  heaped  into  a  pile  with  a  basin- 
like  hollow  in  the  top  where  the  eggs  are  deposited. 

Its  relative,  the  glaucous-winged  gull,  on  the  contrary,  breeds 
on  "the  faces  of  rugged  cliffs,  at  whose  bases  the  waves  are  continu- 
ally breaking."  Nelson's  and  the  Bonaparte  gull  are  rare  in  this  dis- 
trict, but  the  beautiful  short-billed  gull  is  to  be  seen  in  abundance  in 
summer,  haunting  the  marshes  far  in  the  interior  as  well  as  near  the 
coast,  as  also  is  Sabine's  gull,  which  forms  nesting-colonies  on  islets 
in  the  ponds  scattered  over  the  tundra. 

Of  the  eiders  three  species  are  seen  along  the  northern  coasts  of 
Alaska — the  spectacled,  the  Pacific,  and  the  king  eider.  The  first- 
named  has  a  very  limited  breeding-range,  close  to  the  coast,  from  the 
Kuskokwim  northward,  and  nests  in  colonies,-  its  homes  hidden  among 
tussocks  of  marsh-grass.  These  eiders  are  very  quiet  and  retiring 
in  their  domestic  life,  but  their  flesh  and  skins  are  of  so  much  value 
to  the  Eskimos  that  they  are  killed  in  great  numbers,  and  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  save  them.  The  Pacific  eider,  which  the 
whalers  at  Point  Barrow  call  canvasback ,  has  a  far  broader  breed- 
ing-range. Nelson  describes  its  nesting-place  as  "usually  a  dry  spot 
close  to  a  small  pond  or  tide-creek,  and  not  often  in  close  proximity 

44 


to  the  sea-shore;"  and  he  remarks  upon  the  contrast  in  habits  be- 
tween it  and  the  spectacled  eider,  this  species  nesting  in  solitary 
pairs,  the  other  gregariously.  The  king  eider  resembles  the  Pacific 
in  nesting  habits,  and  is  said  by  Murdoch  to  be  the  most  anundant 
spring  bird  on  the  Arctic  seaboard.  Murdoch  devotes  much  space 
in  his  Report  of  the  Expedition  to  Point  Barrow  to  an  account  of  the 
manners  of  these  ducks,  and  to  their  service  to  the  people. 

The  red-backed  sandpipers  come  to  the  tundras  about  the  middle 
of  May,  when  the  notes  of  the  males  "fall  upon  the  ear  like  the  mellow 
tinkle  of  large  water-drops  falling  rapidly  into  a  partly  filled  vessel." 

One  may  also  see  on  the  tundra  the  active  buff-breasted  sand- 
piper, greenish  black  on  the  upper  parts  and  yellowish  buff  below, 
whose  eggs  are  paler  and  much  more  distinctly  spotted  and  streaked. 
Murdoch  writes  of  their  pretty  manners  as  follows : 

A  favorite  trick  is  to  walk  along  with  one  wing  stretched  to  its  fullest 
extent  and  held  high  in  the  air.  I  have  frequently  seen  solitary  birds  doing 
this  fcr  their  own  amusement,  when  they  had  no  spectators  of  their  own  kind. 
Two  will  occasionally  meet  and  spar  like  fighting-cocks  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  rise  together  like  "towering"  birds,  with  legs  hanging  loose.  . 
A  single  bird  will  sometimes  stretch  himself  up  to  his  full  length,  spread  his 
wings  forward,  and  puff  out  his  throat,  making  a  sort  of  clucking  noise,  while 
one  Ox"  two  others  stand  by,  and  apparently  admire  him. 

Of  the  beautifully  costumed  turnstones  two  species  are  observ- 
able, the  common  one  and  the  black;  the  latter  is  by  far  the  more 
numerous  of  the  two  along  the  shore  of  Bering  Sea,  but  seems  never 
to  visit  the  Arctic  coast,  where  the  common  turnstone  is  rare.  Both 
search  for  insects,  etc.,  among  the  pebbles  of  the  beaches,  pushing 
aside  or  turning  over  the  stones  to  get  at  the  little  crustaceans  and 
other  edible  creatures  hiding  beneath  them. 

ALEUTIAN  DISTRICT  (D) 

Mr.  Nelson's  account  in  this  book  of  the  birds  of  the  northern 
coasts,  supplemented  by  Mr.  Bent's  biography  of  the  Tufted  Puffin, 
leaves  little  that  needs  to  be  said  in  respect  to  the  Aleutian  Dis- 
trict— that  chain  of  lonely,  volcanic,  storm-swept  islands  which  are 
the  half-submerged  summits  of  the  mighty  Alaskan  Mountains  ex- 
tended westward  nearly  to  the  Asiatic  coast.  Those  quaint  sea-fowl, 
the  puffins,  auks,  and  guillemots,  are  the  characteristic  birds  of  the 
coasts,  wherever  they  are  high  and  precipitous,  and  a  picture  of 
their  general  characteristics  is  presented  in  Mr.  Bent's  paper  on  the 
sea-parrot  (page  49).  The  breeding-habits  of  all  much  resemble 
those  of  the  sea-parrot,  yet  vary  with  circumstances.  On  islands 
where  foxes  abound,  for  example,  their  nests  are  placed  on  the  highest 

45 


ledges,  but  elsewhere  close  to  the  water  at  the  base  of  a  cliff.  Even 
so  the  eggs  of  most  species  (especially  of  those,  such  as  the  paro- 
quet auklet,  that  scatter  in  lonely  pairs,  not  associating  in  colonies) 
are  difficult  to  obtain,  because  secreted  far  under  the  tumbled  rocks, 
out  of  reach  of  foxes,  crows,  and  other  enemies. 


RED-FACED    CORMORANTS    ON    WALRUS    ISLAND    IN   BERING   SEA 
From  a  Photograph  by  A.  C.  Bent 

Among  gulls,  the  pomarines,  and  the  parasitic  jaegers  are  numer- 
ous in  summer ;  and  both  of  the  kittiwakes,  the  burgomaster,  and  the 
short-billed  gull,  are  present  all  along  the  chain,  breeding  in  thou- 
sands on  certain  islands.  Turner  notes  that  the  short-billed  gull  is 
very  fond  of  sea-urchins,  for  which  it  hunts  at  low  tide;  having 
found  one  it  carries  it  some  distance  into  the  air,  then  drops  it  on 
the  rocks  to  break  it,  so  that  it  can  get  at  the  soft  interior  parts. 
Both  the  arctic  and  the  Aleutian  terns  occur  in  the  western  part  of 
the  islands,  but  neither  is  plentiful. 

Those  oceanic  wanderers  the  albatrosses,  fulmars,  and  fork-tailed 
petrels  are  rarely  seen,  but  various  cormorants  breed  on  all  the 
principal  islands.  "The  nest,"  says  Turner,  "is  usually  placed  on  a 
ledge  of  some  bold-faced  rock,  and  in  most  instances  about  forty  feet 
above  the  sea."  The  eggs  are  laid  early  in  June,  and  are  pale  blue 
in  color.  Some  of  the  crags  are  fairly  covered  with  these  birds,  and 
they  look  like  black  bottles  standing  in  rows.  They  are  caught  or 
otherwise  killed  in  vast  numbers  by  the  Aleuts,  for  the  sake  of  both 

46 


their  flesh  and  their  skins — or  used  to  be,  for  now  the  natives  have 
less  need  of  these  natural  provisions  than  formerly. 

Land-birds  of  the  Aleutian  Chain 

Fresh-water  ducks  are  not  numerous  in  summer  along  the  Aleu- 
tian chain,  the  green-winged  teals  being  by  far  those  most  at  home 
there;  and  on  certain  islands  they  are  surprisingly  abundant.  Turner 
remarks  of  Amchitka  Island  in  1881 : 

All  along  the  little  streams  that  were  cutting  deep  into  the  earth,  and 
so  narrow  that  the  tall  grass  completely  hid  them  for  many  yards  of  their 
length,  the  teals  were  found  walking  along  under  such  places,  searching  for 
tender  roots  and  insects.  These  streams  are  not  long,  as  they  are  usually 
the  outlets  of  inland  lakes,  and  their  sides  are  prevented  from  widening  by 
the  dense  mass  of  grass-roots,  so  that  their  streams  are  deep  and  narrow. 
As  soon  as  the  current  has  excavated  beneath  the  roots  of  grass  the  stream 
widens,  and  the  banks  thus  form  an  overhanging  shelf  on  each  side.  Under 
these  places  the  teals  resort,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  them. 

Of  the  sea-ducks  only  the  old-squaw,  the  Pacific  eider,  and  the 
surf  scoter,  breed  numerously.  Mr.  Turner  has  given  an  interesting 
sketch  of  the  habits  of  the  Aleutian  eiders  (S.  v-nigra).  He  says  that 
they  are  constant  residents  among  the  islands,  and  especially  numer- 
ous in  winter.  They  frequent  the  steep  slopes  heavily  clothed  with 
rank  grasses,  such  as  wild  rye,  which  grows  in  huge  tussocks,  among 
which  these  birds  hide  their  nests.  "A  slight  depression  is  scratched 
out;  the  eggs  are  placed  on  the  ground,  the  down  being  used  only 
as  a  cover  for  the  eggs  when  the  parent  is  absent  from  the  nest. 
The  eggs  are  never  placed  on  the  down.  The  down  is  plucked  from 
the  breast  for  that  purpose  only,  and  increases  in  amount  as  the 
increased  complement  of  eggs  demands  a  greater  amount  of  covering. 
.  .  .  The  female  eider  becomes  very  fat  in  the  breeding-season. 
This  may  in  a  measure  compensate  for  the  lack  of  down  on  her 
breast.  .  .  .  The  male  eiders  are  at  this  season  very  poor  and 
lean."  Eiders  subsist  on  animal  food  only,  and  this  they  obtain  by 
diving  to  the  bottoms  of  bays  and  coves.  They  are  able  to  dive 
deeply  and  to  swim  astonishing  distances  under  water. 

Of  the  shore-birds  the  red  phalarope  breeds  on  the  extreme 
western  end  of  the  chain ;  the  Aleutian  sandpiper  occurs  sparingly  in 
summer  but  abundantly  in  winter;  the  western  sandpiper  is  always 
numerous  on  most  of  the  islands ;  the  wandering  tatler  occasionally 
seen ;  the  golden  plover  is  rare ;  the  turnstone  appears  here  and 
there,  singly  and  shyly;  the  black  turnstone  inhabits  only  the  most 
distant  western  islands ;  and  the  black  oyster-catcher  breeds  abun- 
dantly as  far  as  the  chain  extends  toward  Asia. 

47 


The  rock  ptarmigan,  in  several  local  races,  alone  represents  the 
grouse  family  in  this  district,  and  is  distributed  as  follows :  Nelson's 
subspecies  on  Unalaska,  Akutan  and  Qnimak  islands;  Turner's  on 
Atka  and  neighboring  islands ;  Townsend's  on  Kiska  Island ;  the  Adak 
on  Adak  Island ;  and  Evermann's  on  Attu  Island.  These  races  have 
become  differentiated  from  each  other,  and  from  the  type,  by  their 
isolation,  each  being  subject  to  conditions  of  climate  and  food  not  felt 
by  the  others. 

Both  the  bald  and  golden  eagles  are  commonly  seen  throughout 
the  long  archipelago,  and  Peale's  falcon,  a  variety  of  the  duck  hawk, 
breeds  commonly  throughout  the  archipelago,  building  its  nest  like 
the  eagles  on  the  sea-cliffs,  almost  always  close  to  a  colony  of  eiders, 
whose  young  it  seizes  as  dainties  for  its  own.  The  commonest  bird 
of  prey  on  these  islands,  as  elsewhere  in  Alaska,  is  the  short-eared 
owl,  from  whose  liver  the  Aleuts  make  a  love-philter;  the  snowy  owl 
also  breeds  there  but  is  rare.  Ravens  are  numerous  and  busy  every- 
where, and  are  the  scavengers  of  the  villages,  and  Turner  and  other 
historians  relate  many  curious  incidents  of  their  intelligence  and 
impudent  tameness. 


48 


, 


TUFTED    PUFFIN 


Order— Pygopodes 
Genus— Lunda 


Family — Alcidae 
Species — cirrhata 


National  Association  of  Audubon  Societies. 


TUFTED  PUFFIN 

Order— PYGOPODES  Family— A  LCI  D^; 

Genus — LUNDA  Species — CIRRHATA 

National    Association  of    Audubon    Societies 


THE  TUFTED  PUFFIN 

BY  WILLIAM  LEON  DAWSON 

To  those  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  visit  some  romantic 
isle  off  the  North  Pacific  shore  these  quaint  fowls  make  an  irresistible 
appeal  of  interest.  Sea-parrots  and  Jew  ducks,  the  sailors  call 
them;  and  we  should  all  be  inclined  to  poke  fun  at  them  for  their 
outlandish  head-gear  if  their  behavior  were  not  so  dignified.  For  my 
own  part,  I  confess  a  positive  affection  for  these  droll  Quakers. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  gravity  of  these  tranquil  birds, 
always  absolutely  silent,  save  that,  when  caught  and  harassed,  they 
may  emit  a  low,  hoarse  groan.  They  spend  much  time  standing 
demurely  at  the  entrances  of  their  burrows,  their  little  plumes,  nod- 
ding like  tassels  on  so  many  caps. 

Puffins,  like  other  species  of  the  auk  family,  spend  the  winter 
upon  the  ocean,  and  are  seen  near  land  only  when  the  buffeting  of 
some  storm  of  unusual  severity  strews  the  sand  with  bodies  of  dead 
and  wounded.  As  spring  advances,  and  the  new  summer  coat  of 
plumage  grows  out,  these  birds  acquire  an  extraordinary  array  of 
ornaments  and  appendages.  Males  and  females  alike  receive,  in 
place  of  dull  black  feathers,  a  white  facial  mask;  and  this  is  prolonged 
behind  from  each  side  into  long,  waving  feather-horns  of  a  rich, 
deep  straw-color.  The  eyelid  becomes  a  brilliant  red ;  and  the  great 
red  beak,  always  stout  and  strongly  compressed,  is  further  enlarged 
at  the  base  by  a  new  set  of  horny  plates  of  a  dull  oil-green  or  delicate 
horn-color,  which  exactly  matches  the  eyes  in  tint.  The  feet  also 
become  bright  vermilion,  instead  of  a  pale  salmon. 

A  puffin's  bill  is  so  remarkable  a  creation  that  a  glance  at  its 
structure  may  not  be  out  of  place ;  yet  as  to  the  necessity  of  this 
powerful  crushing  organ  we  are  ignorant.  The  bird  is  not  a  shallow- 
water  feeder,  and  so  has  no  need  to  break  bivalved  shells  to  pieces. 
Moreover,  in  the  breeding-season  it  seems  to  subsist  upon  small 
fish,  which  are  as  easily  taken  by  the  slender-billed  murre.  We 
do  know  that  the  puffin's  queer  bill  is  wonderfully  composed  of 
eighteen  plates  (with  underlying  membranes),  and  that  of  these  six- 
teen, including  "rosettes,  lamellae  and  selvedges,"  but  chiefly  the 
olive-green  basal  plates,  fall  away  at  the  end  of  the  breeding-season. 
Their  place  is  taken  partly  by  underlying  feathered  tracts,  and  partly 
by  an  underlying  horny  plate  colored  deep  brown ;  and  the  breadth 
of  the  bill  is  much  reduced.  At  the  same  time  the  white  facial  mask 

49 


and  its  plumes  disappear  and  the  entire  head  becomes  uniform  black- 
ish; the  vermilion  eyelids  fade  to  a  sickly  salmon-color;  and  the  irides, 
if  we  may  trust  scanty  observations,  become  pale  bluish. 

Nuptially  costumed,  the  tufted  puffins  repair  in  June  to  the  grassy, 
sloping  hillsides  of  the  rocky  islets  where  they  make  their  summer 
homes,  and  proceed  to  renovate  the  old  nesting-burrows,  or  else  to 
dig  new  ones.  They  work  intermittently  at  this.  Dr.  Leonard  Stej- 
neger  noted  that  on  the  Cpmmander  Islands  in  the  early  days  of  the 
season  the  puffins  spent  only  one  day  ashore  in  alternation  with  two 
days  at  sea.  It  is  probable  that  the  birds  seek  and  find  their  mates 
during  these  "sea-days,"  for  I  have  never  seen  anything  like  court- 
ship on  shore. 

A  steep  slope  of  soil  fronting  upon  the  ocean  is  the  favorite  nest- 
ing-site of  the  tufted  puffin.  Here  tunnels  are  driven  at  random  to  a 
depth  of  three  or  four  feet,  and  so  close  together  that  once,  on  Erin, 
one  of  the  Olympiades,  by  placing  a  foot  in  the  entrance  of  a  burrow 
and  turning  on  my  heel  I  was  able  to  touch  with  my  hands  the  en- 
trances of  twenty-five  others,  all  apparently  occupied.  This  may 
have  been  an  unusually  populous  section,  but  if  we  reckoned  at  half 
that  rate  .an  acre  of  ground  would  carry  2,700  burrows.  Hard  or 
rocky  soil  is  not  shunned  in  prosperous  colonies,  but  many  efforts  to 
dig  here  are  baffled.  The  top  soil  on  precipitous  clinging  ledges  may 
be  utilized  also,  and  even  crannies,  crevices,  and  rock-hewn  chambers. 
Upon  the  Farallone  Islands,  off  the  coast  of  central  California,  these 
birds  have  little  opportunity  for  digging  in  the  earth,  and  little  neces- 
sity for  providing  fresh  burrows,  for  crevices  and  cubby-holes  abound 
— places  that  have  served  the  purpose  no  doubt  for  ,many  centuries. 
Many  eggs,  and  sitting  birds  as  well,  are  visible  there  from  the  out- 
side; while  some  of  the  sites  are  nothing  more  than  the  innermost 
recesses  of  niches  and  caves  occupied  by  murres.  On  the  Farallones 
there  is  fierce  competition  between  these  silent  birds  and  the  rabbits 
which  swarm  over  the  rocks.  I  have  seen  impulsive  bunnies  that, 
fleeing  from  fancied  danger,  and  taking  refuge  in  the  first  burrow  at 
hand,  emerged  more  hastily  than  they  went  in.  The  tufted  puffin  is 
a  dangerous,  as  well  as  a  determined  foe,  and  a  bite  from  that  rugged 
beak  will  cut  to  the  bone. 

Although  equipped  with  so  formidable  a  weapon,  the  birds,  in 
digging  their  burrows,  appear  to  depend  upon  their  feet.  These  are 
provided  with  nails  as  sharp  as  tacks,  and  the  "finish"  of  the  nesting- 
chamber  usually  exhibits  a  criss-cross  pattern  of  fine  lines  made  by 
their  scratching  toes. 

50 


Long  grass  and  dense  thickets,  as  of  salal,  salmon-berry  bushes, 
or  dwarf  spruce,  occasionally  afford  refuge  to  birds  hard-pressed  for 
room.  Here  the  puffin,  starting  from  some  exposed  edge,  drives  a 
tunnel  through  the  matted  vegetation  and  deposits  its  egg  upon  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  in  shade  almost  as  intense  as  that  afforded 
by  a  roof  of  earth. 

If  a  hillside  colony  is  approached  suddenly  from  shore,  the  stand- 
ing population,  presumably  males,  pitches  downward  to  sea  by  a 
common  impulse;  while  the  nest-occupants  come  out  by  twos  and 
threes  and  dozens  as  one  walks  across  the  earth  honeycombed  with 
their  burrows.  Once  a-wing,  the  puffin  returns  again  and  again  to 
satisfy  his  curiosity  by  flying  in  great  circles  out  and  back,  or  perhaps 
around  the  nesting-islet,  if  it  be  a  small  one.  There  is  something 
very  weird  and  funereal  about  the  whole  performance! 

Later  the  puffins  settle  upon  the  surface  of  the  water  until  the 
sea  is  black  with  them.  Each  bird  dives,  if  only  for  a  moment,  upon 
the  instant  of  alighting;  and  it  may  be  that  they  find  it  difficult  not 
to  do  so.  Rising  also  requires  an  effort,  desperate  if  the  sea  is  smooth, 
but  easier  in  proportion  to  the  increasing  strength  of  the  wind.  As 
soon  as  the  invader  has  left  the  nesting-colony  or  secreted  himself 
the  puffins  return  rapidly  to  reclaim  the  cooling  egg,  or  to  take  up 
the  sober  vigil  at  the  burrow's  mouth.  Each  alights  with  uplifted 
wings  held  well  back;  the  wings  are  also  lifted  from  time  to  time 
as  if  to  rest  them,  and  they  are  spread  as  balancers  whenever 
the  bird  attempts  to  walk.  Be  the  going  ever  so  easy,  the  puffin  shifts 
about  as  gingerly  as  a  slack-wire  performer. 

Only  one  egg  is  laid,  dull  white,  with  faint  irregular  lines  of 
brown  and  purplish.  Because  the  nest-lining  is  usually  of  the  scantiest, 
only  a  few  salal  leaves  or  bits  of  grass,  the  egg  is  often  so  soiled  by 
contact  with  the  earth  as  to  pass  for  dingy  brown. 

The  baby  puffin  is  your  true  Puffin,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  he  who 
gave  this  trivial  name  to  the  group.  He  is,  indeed,  a  mere  puff-ball, 
for  he  is  densely  covered  at  birth  with  down  at  least  an  inch  long, 
and  you  could  blow  him  away  (Pouf!)  if  he  were  not  so  fat,  and 
anchored  in  a  hole.  The  down  is  of  a  uniform  dull  slaty  black,  and 
the  only  touch  of  color  about  this  infant  pin-cushion  is  a  showing  of 
dull  red  near  the  middle  of  the  otherwise  black  bill. 

The  tufted  puffin  enjoys  the  widesr  breeding-range  of  any  bird  in 
the  North  Pacific,  except  the  pigeon  guillemot ;  and,  although  not  so 
thoroughly  distributed  as  that  species,  it  is  undoubtedly  far  more 

51 


abundant.  On  the  American  side,  it  breeds  as  far  south  as  the  Santa 
Barbara  Islands,  California,  and  as  far  north  as  Cape  Lisburne,  in 
northwestern  Alaska.  It  is,  however,  of  comparatively  rare  occur- 
rence in  Arctic  waters.  On  the  Asiatic  side,  its  breeding-range  ex- 
tends as  far  south  as  Japan ;  while  its  center  of  abundance  is  generally 
conceded  to  be  the  Aleutian  Islands.  Deposition  of  eggs  occurs  as 
early  as  May  1  in  southern  California,  and  as  late  as  August  1  in 
northern  latitudes;  but  fresh  eggs  may  also  be  found  somewhere 
from  June  1  to  June  20  at  any  given  point  in  its  breeding-range. 
Thus,  on  certain  islets  off  the  coast  of  Washington,  I  have  found  the 
puffins  punctual  to  a  day,  and  deposition  occurring  with  practical  uni- 
formity; whereas,  on  the  Farallones,  in  1911,  there  was  a  steady 
increase  in  numbers  from  the  1st  to  the  28th  of  May,  with  a  few 
still  to  be  heard  from  on  June  3.  The  winter  range  of  this  species 
comprises  the  open  ocean,  and  the  birds  are  occasionally  driven  shore- 
ward along  the  Aleutian  chain  and  the  adjacent  coasts. 

From  time  immemorable,  the  natives  of  the  North  Pacific  islands 
have  placed  large  dependence  upon  the  puffins,  both  tufted  and 
horned,  to  supply  both  food  and  clothing.  Advantage  is  taken  of 
the  bird's  inability  to  alter  quickly  its  course  of  flight — your  puffin 
is  no  dodger — and  large  numbers  are  caught  annually  by  means  of 
small  nets  mounted  on  poles — a  sort  of  glorified  butterfly-hunt.  The 
puffin-meat  is  not  distasteful,  as  sea-birds  go,  although  white  men  do 
not  care  for  it.  More  important  to  the  native  Aleutian  is  the  uni- 
formly tough  skin  which  goes  into  the  making  of  parkas,  the  famed 
feather-coats  of  the  North.  These  garments,  each  requiring  the  use 
of  from  forty-five  to  fifty  puffin  skins,  are  made  up  feather-side  in,  and 
are  nearly  impervious  to  cold. 

With  the  natives  we  shall,  of  course,  have  to  be  very  patient  until 
such  times  as  they  may  be  able  to  get  other  food,  such  as  we  our- 
selves eat,  instead  of  the  flesh  of  "torporki"  (The  name  for  the  puffin 
in  the  Commander  Islands)  and  garments  made  of  good  wool,  instead 
of  the  flimsy  bird-skins.  With  the  foreign  born  fishermen  we  shall 
have  to  be  very  firm,  reminding  them  that  Uncle  Sam  is  very  unwill- 
ing to  see  his  guests  assault  the  ancient  rights  of  his  feathered  wards. 

For  ourselves,  we  need  no  excuse  for  our  interest  in  these  quaint 
old-men-of-the-sea,  the  tufted  puffins.  Remote,  unobtrusive  though 
they  be,  they  belong  to  us  to  study,  to  protect,  and  to  enjoy.  A  visit 
paid  to  one  of  their  breeding  haunts  is  like  a  trip  to  fairyland,  a  real 
and  tangible  bit  of  romance.  Such  a  privilege,  properly  exercised,  is 
the  inherent  right  of  every  American  citizen,  and  should  be  safe- 
guarded to  our  children  for  all  time. 

52 


THE  CRESTED  AUKLET 

BY   CHARLES   HASKINS    TOWNSEND 

This  is  a  sea-bird  of  the  far  North,  frequenting  the  coasts  and 
islands  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  North  Pacific  Ocean.  We  first  got 
acquainted  with  the  crested  auklets  at  the  Pribilof  Islands,  where 
they  abound,  and  afterward  saw  them  in  Bering  Strait,  and  above  the 
Arctic  Circle  at  Kotzebue  Sound.  Later,  in  the  fishery  surveys  by 
the  steamship  Albatross,  we  saw  them  from  Kadiak  Island  and  the 
Alaska  Peninsula  through  the  whole  Aleutian  Archipelago,  and  be- 
yond it  to  the  Commander  Islands,  off  Kamchatka. 

The  bird  is  also  found  along  the  Kuril  Islands,  down  as  far  as 
Japan  on  the  western  side  of  the  Pacific.  Rich  as  our  experiences 
with  the  auklets  were  in  many  of  these  places,  they  did  not  prepare 
us  for  what  we  were  to  see  in  the  Shumagin  Islands,  south  of  the 
Alaska  Peninsula. 

On  the  evening  of  August  i,  the  Albatross  came  to  anchor  in 
Yukon  Harbor,  at  Big  Koniuji  Islands,  of  the  Shumagin  group.  While 
the  ship  was  working  her  way  into  this  wild  and  uninhabited  bay 
everyone  noticed  the  increasing  numbers  of  crested  auklets.  The  far- 
ther in  we  went  the  more  numerous  they  became,  until  the  captain 
called  me  to  the  bridge  to  tell  him  what  I  could  about  them. 

The  birds  were  nearly  all  of  the  crested  species,  and  were  present 
in  myriads.  The  surface  of  the  water  was  covered  with  them,  and  the 
air  was  filled  with  them.  Large,  compact  flocks  launched  themselves 
into  the  air  from  the  lofty  cliffs,  and  careened  toward  the  vessel  with 
great  speed  and  whirring  of  wings.  The  crested  auklets  were  here 
more  numerous  than  were  the  choochkies  (least  auklets)  at  St. 
George,  in  the  Pribilofs,  celebrated  as  the  center  of  abundance  for  that 
species. 

Twilight  did  not  come  until  after  nine  o'clock,  and  during  the  long 
evening  the  birds  were  amazingly  active.  Flocks  of  them  continued 
to  come  in  rapid  succession  from  the  cliffs,  many  passing  close  to  the 
ship  at  high  speed  and  swinging  about  the  harbor.  After  the  anchor 
was  dropped  near  the  cliffs,  a  loud  blast  of  the  whistle  made  the  auklets 
still  more  abundant.  The  bird-legions  came  from  the  cliffs  until  the 
misty  air  and  water  about  the  ship  was  alive  with  them. 

These  birds  appeared  to  be  nesting  chiefly  in  crevices  in  the  cliffs, 
although  they  could  be  heard  under  the  boulders  near  the  beaches.  We 
did  not  stay  long  at  Yukon  Harbor,  and  I  have  always  wanted  to  re- 

53 


visit  the  place,  and  get  better  acquainted  with  the  metropolis  of  the 
auklets.  At  the  Pribilofs  we  found  the  birds  apparently  more  abun- 
dant under  boulders  near  the  beaches  than  in  the  high  cliffs.  In  seeking 
the  nests  of  the  crested  auklets,  and  in  fact  the  nests  of  any  of  the  auk- 
lets,  one  needs  a  tool  not  often  used  by  the  bird  student — a  crowbar. 

To  discover  the  nesting-localities  is  easy.  One  has  but  to  walk 
along  the  great  ridges  of  volcanic  stones  thrown  up  by  the  sea.  The 
stones  are  rounded  and  sea-worn  like  pebbles,  but  they  are  gigantic 
pebbles  and  cannot  readily  be  moved.  The  auklets  go  far  down 
among  them,  perhaps  three  or  four  feet,  and  can  be  heard  chattering 
there  during  any  part  of  the  nesting-season. 


A    FAVORITE    NESTING- PLACE   OF  AUKLETS    ON   THE 

PRIBILOF    ISLANDS 
From  a  Photograph  by  Dr.  Charles  H.  Townsend 

The  natives  attempted  to  show  us  the  nests.  They  lifted  or  rolled 
the  heavy  rounded  stones  for  half  an  hour,  until  there  was  a  circle  of 
them  around  us  waist  high  and  fifteen  feet  in  diameter.  They  worked 
in  the  central  depression,  carrying  or  rolling  stones  until  the  task  be- 
came hopeless,  and  still  the  auklets  were  chattering  underneath  the 
stones  all  about.  Edward  W.  Nelson  writes  that  on  the  northern 
islands  of  Bering  Sea,  St.  Matthew,  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  Diomedes, 
the  eggs  are  sometimes  deposited  in  exposed  places,  with  little  attempt 
at  concealment.  One  egg  only  is  laid.  It  is  white,  in  some  cases 
marked  with  a  few  dark  blotches,  and  measures  on  the  average  2.10 
by  1.40  inches. 

We  found  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  food  of  this  and  other 
kinds  of  auklets,  consisted  of  amphipod  crustaceans,  or  beach-fleas,  as 
they  are  called,  when  found  under  bits  of  seaweed  along  the  shore. 

54 


CRESTED  AUKLET 

Order— PYGO  POD  ES  Family— ALCID.E 

Genus — AETHIA  Species— CRISTATELLA 

National  Association  of  Audubon  Societies 


CRESTED    AUKLET 


Order— PYGOPODES 
Genus— AETHIA 


Family— ALCID^: 
Species — CRISTATELLA 


These  small  crustaceans,  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  length,  are 
amazingly  abundant  in  Alaskan  waters,  and,  as  a  never-failing  food- 
supply,  account  for  the  surprising  abundance  of  auklets  of  all  kinds. 

The  native  Aleuts  eat  auklets,  just  as  they  do  most  other  kinds  of 
sea-birds,  and  capture  them  with  nets  that  are  like  a  large  dip-net  with 
a  long  handle.  The  native  hunter  conceals  himself  at  some  point  near 
the  beach  or  bluffs  over  which  the  birds  are  accustomed  to  fly  close. 
When  a  flock  approaches  the  net  is  swung  upward,  and  a  skillful  native 
has  little  difficulty  in  catching  two  or  three  birds  out  of  each  flock  that 
passes.  The  Aleut  people  are  true  children  of  nature,  and  the  greater 
part  of  their  food  consists  of  the  fishes,  seals,  and  sea-birds  found 
along  their  shores.  The  misty  and  often  stormy  shores  would  be  deso- 
late indeed  without  the  lively  presence  of  auklets ;  and  we  cannot  help 
wishing  that  they  abounded  in  more  southern  latitudes,  where  their 
charming  ways  could  be  better  known.  Some  of  nature's  finest  ex- 
hibitions of  bird-life,  however,  are  arranged  without  reference  to  civil- 
ized spectators. 

The  crested  auklets  arrive  at  the  Pribilofs  in  May,  and  remain  un- 
til the  winter  ice  begins  to  invest  the  islands,  when  they  go  farther 
south.  They  are  noisy  in  the  breeding-season  about  their  nests,  but 
are  rather  silent  at  other  times. 

While  they  take  alarm  and  leave  the  cliffs  when  closely  approach- 
ed, they  have  more  confidence  when  on  the  water,  and  do  not  readily 
dive  or  take  flight  except  to  make  way  for  the  boat.  About  islands 
where  they  are  not  specially  abundant  they  may  yet  be  as  thick  as 
bees  about  some  particular  cliff,  long  rows  of  them  standing  lined  up 
on  the  rock-ledges,  while  others  are  coming  and  going.  Sometimes 
we  saw  them  far  off  shore  in  flocks  hundreds  of  yards  in  extent. 
They  are  a  plump,  well-fed  race,  and  appear  to  have  plenty  of  time 
for  play,  both  in  the  air  and  on  the  water. 

The  crested  auklet  is  a  very  distinct  species,  distinguished  by  its 
much  larger  size  from  its  nearest  relatives,  the  whiskered  and  the 
least  auklets ;  and  by  the  differently  shaped  bill,  and  the  presence  of 
a  recurved  crest,  from  the  paroquet  auklet.  Moreover,  the  under- 
parts  are  entirely  dark  in  the  crested  auklet,  but  largely  white  in  the 
other  three  species. 

Males  and  females  are  alike  in  plumage,  which  is  sooty  black 
above,  and  brownish  beneath ;  but  this  obscure  coloring  is  relieved 
by  the  lively  crest,  the  bright  red  of  the  beak,  and  the  white,  plume- 
like  feathers  which  extend  downward  and  backward  from  the  eye. 

55 


The  white  iris  also  contributes  to  the  alert  appearance  of  the  bird's 
head.  The  feet  are  bluish,  with  dark  webs.  That  portion  of  the  red 
beak  around  the  corner  of  the  mouth  is  soft  and  flexible. 

In  length  individual  birds  vary  from  eight  and  one-half  to  nine 
inches. 

The  plumage  in  winter  is  the  same  a$  in  the  summer,  but  the 
bill  is  markedly  different.  The  crested  auklet  not  only  molts  its 
feathers  like  other  birds,  but  sheds  the  red,  horny  plates  about  the 
base  of  its  beak  after  the  breeding  season. 

The  forward-curved  crest  of  the  auklet,  resembling  that  of  the 
California  quail,  suggests  the  name  sea-quail  by  which  it  is  known 
to  English-speaking  persons.  The  native  name  "kanooska"  is  of 
Russian  origin,  and  means  "little  captain." 

The  very  young  bird,  whose  appearance  has  not  long  been 
known,  is  a  ball  of  smoky  down,  in  no  way  resembling  its  parents. 
In  the  immature  bird  the  frontal  crest  and  white  feathers  beneath  the 
eye  are  wanting  or  but  slightly  developed,  while  the  bill  is  much 
smaller  and  dusky  brown. 

At  the  Pribilofs,  it  is  no  uncomon  sight  to  see  fur  seals,  sea-lions, 
and  many  kind  of  sea-birds,  including  crested  auklets,  in  great  abun- 
dance within  a  radius  of  fifty  yards. 

We  need  not  concern  ourselves,  I  think,  about  the  preservation 
of  the  auklets.  They  dwell  among  the  high  cliffs  and  boulder-strewn 
beaches  of  a  thousand  uninhabited  islands,  and  know  how  to  stow 
away  their  eggs  so  safely  that  neither  natives  nor  blue  foxes  can  get 
them  easily. 


56 


THE  EMPEROR  GOOSE 

BY   EDWARD   W.    NELSON 

Among  all  the  wild  geese  that  make  their  summer  home  in  the 
far  North — both  in  the  Old  and  the  New  World — the  emperor  goose 
is  one  of  the  least  known  and  the  most  beautiful.  Its  snowy  white 
head,  dusky  throat,  satiny  gray  body,  on  which  each  feather  is  marked 
by  a  black  crescent  and  white  margin,  and  the  brilliant  orange 
feet,  make  a  strikingly  handsome  combination  of  colors.  When  the 
males  first  arrive  on  their  breeding-grounds  in  spring,  the  beauty  of 
their  plumage  is  remarkable,  but  much  of  its  satiny  luster  vanishes 
as  the  season  advances. 

After  careful  examination  I  found  the  adult  males  and  females 
to  be  absolutely  indistinguishable.  A  fine  adult  female,  taken  at  the 
Yukon  Mouth  on  May  22,  had  its  iris  hazel ;  lower  mandible  dark 
horn-color,  with  a  white  spot  on  each  side  of  the  rami;  membrane 
about  the  nares  livid-blue,  upper  surface  of  bill  pale  purplish  or  fleshy 
white;  edge  of  nail  dark  horn-color;  rest  of  the  nail  white;  inside  of 
mouth  mottled  black  and  white;  feet  and  legs  a  bright,  rich,  orange- 
yellow. 

Although  the  breeding-range  of  the  emperor  goose  covers  parts 
of  two  continents,  yet  it  is  perhaps  more  restricted  in  its  territory 
than  any  other  northern  species  of  goose.  Its  summer  home  lies 
along  the  coasts  on  both  sides  of  Bering  Strait,  but,  as  we  know,  the 
vast  majority  of  the  race  breed  in  Alaska,  mainly  on  the  islands  of 
the  lower  part  of  the  Yukon  Delta,  and  thence  southward  on  the  low 
marshy  tundras  to  Cape  Vancouver  and  nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Kuskokwim  River.  A  few  stragglers  nest  north  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Yukon.  Considerable  numbers  also  breed  on  St.  Lawrence  Island, 
where  I  have  seen  many  flocks  in  June.  They  also  rear  their  young 
on  the  shores  of  Chukchi  Land,  in  extreme  northeastern  Asia.  We 
saw  them  coasting  along  the  beach  near  East  Cape  on  the  Siberian 
side  of  Bering  Strait  the  first  of  July,  and  they  must  have -been  breed- 
ing in  that  district.  When  Nordenskiold  wintered  at  Tapkan,  on  the 
Arctic  coast  of  Siberia  northwest  of  Bering  Strait,  he  noted  the  arrival 
of  these  birds  near  his  winter  quarters  as  soon  as  the  snow  left  the 
tundra  in  spring.  This  is  the  most  western  record  we  have  of  them 
in  Siberia,  but  they  no  doubt  range  still  farther.  Their  main  winter- 
ing place  appears  to  be  on  the  Pacific,  or  southern,  side  of  the  Penin- 
sula of  Alaska  and  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The  Aleuts  know  them  as 
"beach  geese,"  owing  to  their  persistent  occupation  of  the  seashore. 

57 


Stray  individuals  wander  far  down  the  American  coast  in  winter, 
even  to  northern  California,  where  several,  mostly  immature  birds, 
have  been  captured.  They  also  go  as  far  as  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  for 
Henry  W.  Henshaw  has  recorded  the  capture  of  four  on  Hawaii, 
where  they  arrived,  with  other  stray  visitors,  after  a  severe  October 
gale,  in  1902.  On  the  coast  of  eastern  Asia,  we  have  records  of  them 
as  far  south  as  Bering  Island,  the  mouth  of  the  Anadyr  River,  and 
the  coast  of  Kamchatka.  On  this  coast,  however,  we  do  not  know 
of  their  presence  in  any  large  numbers. 

While  I  was  preparing  to  go  to  Alaska,  more  years  ago  than  I 
like  to  contemplate,  the  emperor  goose,  Steller's  and  Fischer's  eiders, 
and  the  Aleutian  tern,  were  names  to  conjure  with;  and  the  anticipa- 
tion of  studying  these  birds  in  their  remote  northern  homes  filled  me 
with  joy.  In  the  North,  my  headquarters  were  at  St.  Michael,  on 
the  coast  of  Bering  Sea,  about  sixty  miles  north  of  the  Yukon  Delta. 
Here  emperor  geese  rarely  occurred  except  in  stray  parties,  visitors  to 
the  marshy  coast-plain  in  fall.  I  made  a  sledge-journey  one  winter 
through  the  Yukon  Delta  and  across  the  tundras  southward  to  the 
Kuskokwim,  and  found  the  Eskimos  in  that  district  wearing  parkas, 
or  outer  garments,  made  of  the  skins  of  emperor  geese  sewed  toge- 
ther ;  and  I  heard  that  great  numbers  of  these  birds  nested  there  each 
spring.  From  what  I  learned,  it  appeared  evident  that  they  rarely 
nested  above  the  upper  limit  of  the  tide  in  the  sluggish  streams  of 
this  low  plain.  All  available  observations  of  the  habits  of  this  bird 
show  it  to  be  a  strictly  salt-water,  coastal  species,  both  in  summer 
and  winter.  Its  food  is  sought  between  tide-lines  either  on  oozy  flats, 
as  at  the  Yukon  mouth,  or  along  the  rocky  beaches  of  the  wild  Aleu- 
tian shores. 

One  spring,  during  my  residence  at  St.  Michael,  it  became  possi- 
ble to  fulfil  my  long-cherished  desire  to  visit  the  breeding-grounds  of 
these  geese,  and  of  many  other  water-fowl  in  the  Yukon  Delta.  To 
reach  there  in  time  to  welcome  the  coming  feathered  host,  I  left  St. 
Michael  early  in  May  with  an  Eskimo  and  a  dog-sledge.  The  tundra 
was  still  clothed  in  winter  white,  except  here  and  there  a  bare  spot 
on  the  sunny  side  of  a  knoll,  and  the  sea  was  covered  with  unbroken 
ice  to  the  far  horizon.  The  hoarse,  crowing  notes  of  the  willow  ptar- 
migan were  beginning  to  be  heard  on  the  tundra,  and  occasional 
scouts  from  the  coming  army  of  white-fronted  and  cackling  geese 
passed  high  overhead,  spying  out  the  land ;  yet  the  day  I  set  out  the 
temperature  was  well  below  zero. 

58 


gs 


a  « 

«   a 
'•« 


O)      i-> 

2    = 

<  (^ 


At  the  border  of  the  Yukon  Delta,  Eskimos  familiar  with  the 
country  were  employed  to  lead  us  to  the  desired  nesting-ground  of 
the  emperor  goose.  Nearly  half  a  day's  journey  among  the  maze  of 
ice-covered  channels  of  the  delta  brought  us  to  a  low,  flat  island, 
where  our  guide  assured  me  many  nachau-thluk  would  soon  arrive 
to  rear  their  young.  It  was  a  bare,  desolate  spot,  with  only  a  few 
scattered  alders  on  the  upper  side  of  the  islands,  and  an  unbroken 
view  out  over  the  frozen  sea  to  the  west.  A  tent  was  put  up  on  a 
slight  rise  and,  after  a  stock  of  drift-wood  had  been  gathered,  the 
guides  took  the  sledge  and  left  me  with  my  Eskimo  companion  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  birds.  Later,  when  the  ice  went  out,  they 
returned  for  me  with  kyaks. 

A  few  white-fronted  and  cackling  geese  gave  noisy  evidence  of 
their  presence,  but  it  was  not  until  May  22  that  the  Eskimo  brought 
in  the  first  emperor  goose — a  male  in  beautiful  spring  plumage.  Af- 
ter this  small  flocks  came  in  rapidly  until  they  were  plentiful  all 
about  us.  They  arrived  quietly,  skimming  along  near  the  ground 
quite  unlike  the  other  geese,  which  appeared  high  overhead  with  wild 
outbursts  of  clanging  cries  that  were  answered  by  those  already  on 
the  ground.  The  river-channels  and  the  sea  were  still  covered  with 
ice,  and  the  tundra  was  half  covered  with  snow,  at  the  time  of  the 
first  arrivals. 

At  first,  the  emperor  geese  were  difficult  to  approach,  but  as  their 
numbers  increased  they  became  less  shy.  When  on  the  wing  they 
were  easily  distinguished  from  the  other  geese,  even  at  considerable 
distances,  by  their  proportionately  shorter  necks  and  heavier  bodies, 
as  well  as  by  their  short,  rapid  wing-strokes,  resembling  those  of  the 
black  brant.  Like  the  latter,  they  usually  flew  near  the  ground, 
rarely  more  than  thirty  yards  high,  and  commonly  so  close  ,to  the 
ground  that  their  wing-tips  almost  touched  the  surface  on  the  down 
stroke.  While  flying  from  place  to  place,  they  give  at  short  intervals 
a  harrh,  strident  call  of  two  syllables,  like  kla-ha,  kla-ha,  kla-ha,  en- 
tirely different  from  the  note  of  any  other  goose  I  have  ever  heard. 
A  group  of  them  on  a  sand-bar  or  mud-flat  often  utter  lower,  more 
cackling  notes  in  a  conversational  tone,  which  may  be  raised  to  wel- 
come new  arrivals.  They  are  much  less  noisy  than  either  the  white- 
fronted  or  cackling  geese,  which  often  make  the  tundra  resound  with 
their  excited  cries.  Occasionally  I  could  cause  a  passing  flock  to 
leave  its  course  and  swing  in  close  to  my  place  of  concealment  by 
imitating  their  flight-notes. 

59 


Almost  at  once  after  their  arrival  on  the  islands,  the  emperor 
geese  appeared  to  be  mated,  the  males  walking  around  the  females, 
swinging  their  heads  and  uttering  low  love-notes,  and  incoming  flocks 
quickly  disintegrated  into  pairs  which  moved  about  together,  though 
often  congregating  with  many  others  on  flats  and  sand-bars.  The 
male  was  extremely  jealous  and  pugnacious,  however,  and  immedi- 
ately resented  the  slightest  approach  of  another  toward  his  choice; 
and  this  spirit  was  shown  equally  when  an  individual  of  another  spe- 
cies chanced  to  come  near.  When  a  pair  were  feeding,  the  male 
moved  about  restlessly,  constantly  on  the  alert,  and  at  the  first  alarm 
the  pair  drew  near  each  other,  and  just  before  taking  wing  uttered 
a  deep,  ringing  u-lugh,  u-lugh;  these,  like  the  flight-notes,  having  a 
peculiarly  deep  tone  impossible  to  describe. 

At  low  tide,  as  soon  as  the  shore-ice  disappeared,  the  broad  mud- 
flats along  shore  were  thronged  with  them  in  pairs  and  groups  num- 
bering up  to  thirty  or  forty  individuals.  They  were  industriously 
dabbling  in  the  mud  for  food  until  satisfied,  and  then  congregated  on 
bars,  where  they  sat  dozing  in  the  sun  or  lazily  arranging  their 
feathers.  By  lying  flat  on  the  ground  and  creeping  cautiously  forward 
I  repeatedly  approached  within  thirty  or  forty  yards  of  parties  near 
shore  without  their  showing  any  uneasiness. 

Early  in  June  they  began  depositing  eggs  on  the  flat  marshy 
islands  bordering  the  sea  all  along  the  middle  and  southern  part  of 
the  delta. 

The  nests  were  always  most  numerous  in  the  marshes  a  short 
distance  back  from  the  muddy  feeding-grounds,  but  stray  pairs  were 
found  nesting  here  and  there  farther  inland  on  the  same  tundra,  with 
the  other  species  of  geese  and  various  other  water-fowl.  Near  the 
seashore,  the  eggs  were  frequently  laid  among  the  highest  driftwood, 
wave-torn  scraps  of  driftwood  lying  along  the  highest  tide-marks. 
On  June  5,  a  female  was  found  on  her  eggs  on  a  slight  rise  in  the 
general  level.  A  small  gray-bleached  fragment  of  driftwood  lay  close 
by.  The  goose  must  have  lain  with  neck  outstretched  on  the  ground, 
as  I  afterward  found  was  their  custom  when  approached,  for  the 
Eskimo  and  I  passed  within  a  few  feet  on  each  side  of  her;  but,  in 
scanning  the  ground  for  nesting  birds,  the  general  similarity  in  tint  of 
the  bird  and  the  obvious  stick  of  driftwood  had  completely  misled  our 
sweeping  glances.  We  had  gone  about  twenty  steps  beyond  when 
the  goose  uttered  a  loud  alarm-note  and  flew  swiftly  away.  The 
ground  was  so  absolutely  bare  of  any  cover  that  the  three  eggs  on 
which  she  had  been  sitting  were  plainly  visible  from  where  we  stood. 

60 


They  were  lying  in  a  slight  depression  without  a  trace  of  lining.  The 
same  ruse  misled  us  several  times;  but  on  every  occasion  the 
parent  betrayed  her  presence  by  a  startled  outcry  and  hasty  departure 
soon  after  we  had  passed  her  and  our  backs  were  presented.  They 
usually  flew  to  a  considerable  distance,  and  showed  little  anxiety  over 
our  visit  to  the  nests.  The  nests  I  examined  usually  contained  from 
three  to  five  eggs,  but  the  full  complement  ranged  up  to  eight.  When 
first  laid  the  eggs  are  pure  white,  but  soon  become  soiled.  They 
vary  in  shape  from  elongated  oval  to  slightly  pyriform,  and  are  indis- 
tinguishable in  size  and  shape  from  those  of  the  white-fronted  goose. 

As  the  egg-laying  approaches  completion,  the  parent  lines  the  de- 
pression in  the  ground  with  a  soft,  warm,  bed  of  fine  grass,  leaves, 
and  feathers  from  her  own  breast.  The  males  were  rarely  seen  near 
the  nests,  but  usually  gathered  about  the  feeding-grounds  with  others 
of  their  kind,  where  they  were  joined  now  and  then  by  their  mates. 

The  young  are  hatched  in  late  June  or  early  July,  and  are  led 
about  by  both  parents  until,  in  the  last  weeks  of  July,  or  the  first  of 
August,  the  old  birds  molt  their  quill-feathers,  and,  like  the  still 
unfledged  young,  become  extremely  helpless.  At  this  time,  myriads 
of  other  geese  are  in  the  same  condition ;  and  the  Eskimos  made  a 
practice  of  setting  up  long  lines  of  strong  fish-nets  on  the  tundras 
to  form  pound-traps,  or  enclosures  with  wide  wings  leading  to  them, 
into  which  thousands  were  driven  and  killed  for  food.  The  slaughter 
in  this  way  was  very  great,  for  the  young  were  killed  at  the  same 
time  and  thrown  away  in  order  to  get  them  out  of  the  way  of  the 
next  drive.  The  Eskimos  of  this  region  also  gather  large  numbers 
of  eggs  of  the  breeding  water-fowl  for  food ;  and,  this  practice,  with 
the  demand  for  eggs  at  the  mining-camps,  has  constituted  a  serious 
menace  to  the  existence  of  these  and  other  water-fowl. 

Fortunately,  in  1909,  President  Roosevelt  made  a  bird-reserva- 
tion covering  the  delta  of  the  Yukon  and  the  tundra  to  the  southward, 
which  includes  the  main  breeding-ground  of  the  emperor  goose,  and 
thus  took  a  long  step  toward  perpetuating  this  fine  bird. 


61 


THE  HUDSONIAN  CURLEW 

BY   A.    C.    BENT 

A  striking  case  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  is  seen  when  we  com- 
pare the  relative  abundance  of  the  three  common  species  of  North 
American  curlews  today  with  their  status  fifty  years  ago.  Whereas, 
at  that  time  the  Hudsonian  Curlew  was  the  rarest  of  the  three,  it  is 
now  by  far  the  commonest. 

The  reasons  for  the  Hudsonian  curlew's  success  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  are  not  hard  to  find.  Its  breeding-grounds  are  in  the 
far  North,  where  it  is  never  disturbed ;  it  has  no  dangerous  migration- 
route;  it  does  not,  ordinarily,  migrate  in  very  large  flocks,  which  are 
susceptible  to  vicissitudes  of  weather  and  great  slaughter  at  the 
hands  of  gunners;  but,  above  all,  it  is  a  shy,  wary,  wily  bird,  quite 
capable  of  taking  care  of  itself  and  well-fitted  to  survive.  Like  the 
crow,  it  is  more  than  a  match  for  its  enemies. 

The  Hudsonian  curlew,  Jack  curlew,  short-billed  curlew,  or 
Jack,  as  it  is  called,  has  often  been  mistaken  by  gunners  for  one  of 
the  other  two  species,  and  some  confusion  seems  to  have  existed,  in 
regard  to  it,  among  the  early  writers  on  ornithology. 

There  are  certain  characters,  however,  by  which  this  species  may 
be  recognized  at  any  age.  The  long-billed  curlew  is  much  larger, 
the  crown  of  its  head  is  uniformly  streaked,  without  any  median 
stripe,  and  its  axillars  have  no  distinct  bars ;  whereas  the  Hudsonian 
has  a  dusky  crown  with  a  light  median  stripe,  and  its  axillars  are 
distinctly  barred  with  dusky.  The  Eskimo  curlew  may  readily  be 
distinguished  by  its  uniformly  dusky  primaries;  whereas  in  the  Hud- 
sonian the  primaries  have  distinct  buff  spots  or  partial  bars  on  the 
inner  webs.  The  bristle-thighed  curlew  bears  a  close  superficial 
resemblance  to  the  Hudsonian,  but  its  primaries  are  like  the  Eskimo 
curlew's,  and  its  general  coloration  above,  especially  on  the  tail,  is 
much  more  rufous. 

The  Hudsonian  curlew  is  widely  distributed  over  nearly  all  of 
North  America  and  part  of  South  America.  Its  breeding-range  has 
not  been  fully  worked  out,  but  it  is  known  to  breed  on  the  Barren 
Grounds  of  northern  Mackenzie,  and  on  the  coast  of  Alaska  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Yukon  to  Kotzebue  Sound.  Its  principal  winter  range 
is  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of  South  America  from  Ecuador  to  southern 
Chile,  where  it  is  very  abundant;  it  also  winters  from  Lower  Cali- 
fornia to  the  coasts  of  Guatemala  and  southern  Honduras;  on  the 

62 


Atlantic  Coast  its  winter  range  extends  from  British  Guiana  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Amazon  River.  Between  these  two  ranges  it  migrates 
over  all  the  intervening  regions,  where  it  can  find  suitable  country, 
but  mainly  along  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts.  On  the  Pacific 
Coast  the  spring  flight  progresses  slowly  northward,  reaches  Alaska 
about  the  middle  of  May,  and  arrives  on  the  breeding-grounds  in 
northern  Mackenzie  by  the  end  of  May. 

Very  little  seems  to  be  known  about  the  nesting-habits  of  the 
Hudsonian  curlew.  Mr.  MacFarlane  found  them  breeding  on  the 
treeless  Arctic  tundra  near  the  mouth  of  the  Anderson  River,  where 
he  took  several  sets  of  eggs  late  in  June  and  early  in  July;  the  nests 
were  merely  depressions  in  the  ground  lined  with  a  few  withered 
leaves  J.  O.  Stringer  described  a  nest  which  he  found  on  the  lower 
Mackenzie  River  as  a  pile  of  grass,  moss,  and  weeds,  on  an  island  in 
the  river.  Joseph  Grinnell  reported  this  species  as  breeding  in  the 
Kowak  Valley  between  June  14  and  20,  1899.  The  eggs  vary  in 
color  from  a  creamy  drab  to  a  brownish  buff,  and  are  more  or  less 
heavily  spotted  with  various  shades  of  brown.  The  downy  young 
have  apparently  never  been  described,  and  nothing  seems  to  be  known 
about  the  early  plumage  changes.  Young  birds  in  the  fall  can  be  dis- 
tinguished from  adults  by  their  shorter  bills  and  by  the  conspicuous 
buff  spots  on  the  upper  parts. 

The  Hudsonian  curlew  is  more  of  a  littoral  species  than  either 
of  the  others,  and  seems  to  prefer  to  frequent  and  feed  on  the  sea- 
coast.  At  low  tide  it  resorts  to  the  recently  uncovered  flats  and 
beaches,  where  it  can  pick  up  marine  insects,  worms,  and  small  crus- 
taceans. 

Like  most  of  the  northern-breeding  shore-birds,  the  Hudsonian 
curlew  moves  off  its  breeding-grounds  as  soon  as  the  young  are  able 
to  shift  for  themselves,  and  begins  its  summer  wanderings,  or  starts 
on  its  southward  migration,  early  in  July.  The  two  main  lines 
of  flight  are  down  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  the  continent,  but  a 
more  scattering  flight  passes  through  the  central  valleys  and  plains. 
As  with  all  the  shore-birds,  the  early  flights  are  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  adult  birds,  and  the  flights  of  young  birds  follow,  on  an  aver- 
age, about  a  month  later. 


63 


THE  WILLOW  PTARMIGAN 

BY    JOSEPH    GRINNELL 

The  name  ptarmigan  is  applied  to  several  species  and  races  of 
grouse-like  birds  comprising  the  genus  Lagopus.  Lagopus  means 
"rabbit-foot,"  and  refers  to  the  chief  character  by  which  ptarmigans 
are  distinguished  from  other  members  of  the  grouse  family,  namely, 
the  heavy  clothing  of  hair-like  feathers  which  envelop  the  feet.  In  all 
but  one  of  the  species  remarkable  changes  of  plumage  occur  twice  a 
year,  and  by  the  autumnal  one  a  snow-white  dress  is  acquired  for  the 
winter  season.  This,  and  the  fact  that  ptarmigans  live  in  the  far 
north  or  on  the  tops  of  high  mountains,  where  the  climate  is  severe, 
makes  appropriate  the  name  snow  grouse,  used  commonly  in  Alaska. 

North  America  has  three  .distinct  species  of  ptarmigans.  One 
of  them,  the  white-tailed,  lives  upon  the  snowy  summits  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  as  far  south  as  northern  New  Mexico.  The  rock  ptarmi- 
gan inhabits  mountainous  country  in  the  far  north,  and,  as  repre- 
sented by  various  subspecies,  is  found  from  Greenland  across  the  con- 
tinent and  on  nearly  every  one  of  the  long  chain  of  Aleutian  Islands. 
The  third  American  species,  the  willow  ptarmigan,  with  which  the 
present  essay  is  concerned,  is  most  abundant  on  that  level  or  rolling 
arctic  prairie-land,  known  as  tundra,  which  lies  between  the  forested 
interior  and  the  Arctic  Coast.  In  western  and  northern  Alaska,  these 
tundras  are  covered  with  a  deep  layer  of  moss  and  lichens.  Here  or 
there  in  'draws'  or  shallow  valleys,  are  tracts  of  dwarf  willow  and 
alder.  In  summer  the  tundras  are  boggy,  and  the  many  ponds  and 
connecting  channels  make  traveling  difficult.  In  winter  they  are 
frozen  solidly,  and  the  wind-driven  snow  packs  into  the  depressions 
so  that  the  surface  is  nearly  smooth. 

Save  for  black  tail-feathers,  almost  completely  concealed  when 
the  bird  is  at  rest,  and  the  black  of  bill  and  eyes,  the  willow  ptarmi- 
gan in  the  winter  is  pure  white.  When  the  white  feathers  first  appear 
in  the  fall,  they  possess  a  perceptible,  though  faint,  tinge  of  pink; 
but  this  soon  fades  out. 

The  purely  white  winter  dress  is  believed  to  make  the  birds  so 
inconspicuous  against  the  white  of  the  landscape  that  they  many 
times  escape  discovery  by  their  enemies,  the  arctic  fox  and  gyrfalcon, 
as  they  certainly  do  by  the  human  hunter.  On  a  day  when  the  sky  is 
overcast  with  dense  haze,  obscuring  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  and 
dispersing  an  intense,  even  light,  the  ptarmigans  are  extremely  hard 

64 


to  discern  against  the  blank  whiteness  of  their  surroundings.  Even 
when  fresh  foot-prints  in  the  snow  and  occasional  calls  told  of  their 
near  vicinity  I  have  often  found  myself  to  be  within  but  a  few  yards 
of  the  birds  before  they  would  take  flight  with  startling  whirr  of 
wings  and  hoarse  notes  of  alarm ;  then,  as  one  would  alight  at  some 
distance,  it  would  seemingly  vanish  from  the  sight,  not  infrequently 
defying  rediscovery  altogether. 

On  the  occasional  cloudless  day,  when  the  sun  shines  unob- 
structed, even  white  objects  are  brought  out  in  sharp  relief  by  the 
long,  dark  shadows  cast  upon  the  snow.  If  approached  at  right 
angles  to  the  rays  from  the  sun,  ptarmigans  may  then  be  discerned  at 
several  hundred  yards  distance ;  but  they  are  then  shy,  for  they  have 
a  marvelous  way  of  appearing  to  know  whether  or  not  the  hunter  is 
actually  aware  of  their  exact  whereabouts. 

During  the  eight  months  of  winter,  the  willow  ptarmigans  feed 
upon  the  buds  and  tender  terminal  twigs  of  the  dwarf  alder  and  wil- 
low, and  virtually  upon  nothing  else,  save  that  quartz-gravel  is  reg- 
ularly gathered  from  the  river-bars  where  the  wind  bares  the  ground 
of  snow. 

The  willow  ptarmigan  is  by  nature  gregarious.  Especially  is 
this  trait  exhibited  in  the  autumn  months,  when  in  the  most  northern 
localities  a  partial  migration  proceeds  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the 
south,  or  into  great  valleys  where  more  food  and  better  cover  are 
afforded,  for  the  birds  show  a  predilection  for  the  vicinity  of  brush- 
patches,  or  even  of  tracts  of  stunted  spruce  trees  where  these  exist. 
Not  infrequently  they  escape  from  the  dash  of  a  falcon  by  taking 
refuge  in  a  bush  among  whose  stems  the  snow  rests  lightly,  and  into 
which  the  frightened  bird  is  able  to  plunge  quite  out  of  sight. 

In  the  early  spring,  long  before  the  thaw  begins  in  earnest,  the 
male  ptarmigans  begin  to  change  to  a  rich  chestnut-brown  color  on 
the  head  and  chest,  and  a  bright  red  comb  develops  above  each  eye. 
For  a  time,  in  April  and  early  May,  the  males,  with  their  deep  brown 
mantles  and  white  bodies,  are  very  conspicuous.  They  are  then  more 
noisy  than  at  any  other  season,  uttering  at  frequent  intervals  until 
late  dusk  a  low,  harsh  cackle,  roughly  imitated  in  the  Eskimo  name, 
a-kaze-rh-gak. 

The  male  ptarmigans  wear  this  special  courting-plumage  until 
June,  when  another  change,  involving  the  whole  body-plumage,  leads 
to  a  brown-black-and-buff  plumage,  which  is  worn  until  autumn.  The 
females,  meanwhile,  change  rapidly  in  early  May,  about  the  time  the 
snow  begins  to  disappear,  to  a  mottled  and  barred  black-and-brown 

65 


coloration.  In  this  "summer  protective"  plumage  the  birds  of  both 
sexes  are  as  difficult  to  see  against  the  green,  brown,  and  gray  of  the 
open  tundra,  as  they  were  in  winter  plumage  against  the  white 
landscape. 

All  these  remarkable  changes  in  appearance  are  the  result  of 
molts,  by  which  feathers  of  one  color  fall  out  and  new  ones  of  a  dif- 
ferent color  grow  in.  In  the  autumn  exactly  the  same  process  leads 
from  the  brown  and  mottled  coloration  of  both  old  birds  and  young- 
of-the-year  to  the  pure  white  of  winter  dress.  But  while  in  the  spring 
molt  the  feathers  of  the  head,  neck,  and  back  are  the  first  to  be  re- 
placed, in  the  fall  these  are  the  last  tracts  affected ;  so  that  by  the 
middle  of  October  birds  are  to  be  seen  with  dark  feathers  still  pre- 
dominating in  the  head  and  back.  This,  of  course,  gives  much  the 
same  effect  as  at  an  early  stage  of  the  spring  molt. 

The  female  ptarmigan  selects  the  site  for  her  nest  during  the 
third  week  of  May,  and  by  the  second  week  of  June  full  sets  of  eggs 
have  been  laid.  The  nest  is  a  slight  depression  in  the  moss  on  the 
open  ground ;  usually  the  summit  of  a  hummock  is  selected,  as  being 
a  drier  situation  during  the  period  of  early  summer  rains.  A  scanty 
lining  of  dry  grasses  in  the  nest  keeps  the  eggs  from  actual  contact 
with  the  saturated  moss  of  the  foundation. 

The  full  set  of  eggs  numbers  from  eleven  to  thirteen.  They  are 
very  deeply  and  closely  spotted  and  blotched  with  chestnut-brown, 
the  effect  being  to  render  them  difficult  to  distinguish  from  their  sur- 
roundings, even  when  lying  in  plain  view  but  a  few  feet  from  the 
observer.  The  female  bird  does  all  of  the  sitting,  and  when  ap- 
proached on  the  nest  does  not  take  flight  until  almost  trodden  upon. 
She  then  exhibits  the  greatest  solicitude,  tumbling  about  within  a 
few  yards  of  the  intruder  in  the  most  distressing  manner.  The  male 
bird  sometimes  appears,  but  keeps  discreetly  at  a  much  greater  dis- 
tance. 

After  the  eggs  are  hatched,  the  precocious  youngsters  are  ac- 
companied by  both  parents.  They  then  have  the  faculty,  so  like  that 
of  young  quails  and  grouse,  of  concealing  themselves  at  a  moment's 
notice,  while  the  parents  attempt  to  call  the  intruder's  attention  else- 
where. The  young  are  at  first  clothed  with  down,  of  yellow  and 
brown  shades ;  but  before  they  are  half-grown  this  is  entirely  replaced 
by  loose-textured  feathers,  and  even  before  half-grown  they  are  able 
to  fly  as  readily  as  the  adults. 

In  summer,  the  willow  ptarmigan's  bill  of  fare  includes  many 
sorts  of  insects,  as  well  as  green  herbs.  In  the  fall  the  abundant 

66 


crops  of  blueberries,  heathberries,  cranberries,  and  roseapples  are 
freely  resorted  to,  and  these  fruits  again  become  available  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  when  the  retreating  snow  leaves  them  exposed. 

The  reader  will  already  have  marveled  at  the  special  and  useful 
modifications  in  the  habits  and  structure  of  the  ptarmigan,  which 
enable  it  to  carry  on  a  successful  existence  under  such  extremes 
in  winter  climate.  Perhaps  the  most  wonderful  thing  about  the  bird 
is  its  alternating  adaptations  to  the  opposite  conditions  of  the  short 
summer  period.  Not  only  is  the  summer  plumage  of  a  totally  dif- 
ferent general  color,  as  already  described,  but  it  is  much  less  dense 
than  the  winter  plumage.  The  molts,  however,  do  not  affect  the 
feathers  of  every  part  of  the  body.  The  wing  and  tail  feathers  are 
changed  only  at  the  time  of  the  fall  molt  which,  in  fact,  is  the  only 
complete  molt.  The  feathers  of  the  feet  and  legs  are  not  replaced  in 
the  spring;  but,  as  summer  advances,  the  old  feathers  become  brittle 
and  wear  off,  until  midsummer  finds  the  birds  with  almost  naked 
feet — a  heavy  feathering  at  that  season  probably  being  not  only  need- 
less but  a  hindrance,  especially  when  wet. 

The  toe-nails  in  winter  are  so  long  as  to  project  considerably  be- 
yond the  generous  feathering  of  the  feet  and  toes.  They  probably 
serve  as  "ice-creepers,"  of  great  use  in  walking  or  wallowing  in  crusty 
snow.  But  the  extraordinary  thing  is  that  in  summer  the  toe-nails 
drop  off,  or  molt,  new  ones  growing  from  the  quick! 

In  winter  plumage  one  set  of  feathers  fails  to  conform  to  the 
general  whiteness — the  tail-feathers.  When  the  bird  is  at  rest  the 
very  long  upper  and  under  tail-coverts  almost  completely  conceal 
these  black  tail-feathers,  which  are  then  closed  together  in  narrow 
ranks;  but  when  the  bird  takes  flight,  the  tail  is  widely  spread,  and 
a  black  "directive"  marking  flashes  forth  against  the  white  back- 
ground. In  summer,  the  wing-feathers,  left  unmolted  from  the  winter 
dress,  are  unnoticed  in  the  bird  at  rest;  but,  as  the  wings  are  spread 
in  flight,  they  furnish  again  a  conspicuous  "directive"  pattern  against 
the  dark  landscape,  the  black  tail-feathers  being  then  ineffective. 

The  ptarmigans  of  the  far  northern  frontier  afford  an  even 
more  important  game-resource  than  did  the  native  birds  in  the  early 
days  of  the  settlement  of  the  States.  The  weight  of  a  willow  ptarmi- 
gan is  one  and  one-half  pounds,  so  that  each  bird  gives  as  much  food 
as  four  or  five  Bob-whites.  It  should  be  so  cared  for  as  to  continue  a 
permanent  game-resource  in  a  country  where  the  food-value  of  game- 
birds  is  far  more  to  be  considered  than  any  question  of  sport. 

67 


THE  ALASKAN  LONGSPUR 

BY   EDWARD    W.    NELSON 

The  Lapland  longspur  is  a  circumpolar  bird,  whose  presence  has 
been  recorded  in  summer  from  many  points  visited  by  explorers  in 
the  treeless  Arctic  regions.  It  nests  in  Iceland,  Greenland,  and  on  a 
majority  of  the  islands  of  the  icy  sea  north  to  73  degrees  of  latitude, 
as  well  as  on  the  mainland.  Owing  probably  to  some  climatic  in- 
fluence, the  longspurs  which  breed  west  of  the  Mackenzie  River,  and 
throughout  Alaska,  as  well  as  on  the  Aleutian  and  other  islands  of 
Bering  Sea,  are  paler  than  those  from  the  rest  of  the  great  range  of 
this  species,  and  have  been  distinguished  as  a  geographic  subspecies 
called  the  Alaska  dongspur  (Calcarius  lapponicus  alascensis).  These 
longspurs,  however,  are  so  nearly  alike  in  appearance  and  habits 
throughout  their  range  that  in  the  present  sketch  they  have  been 
treated  as  one.  In  Alaska,  they  are  extremely  abundant  and  familiar 
birds  on  virtually  all  of  the  treeless  tundras  or  Arctic  barrens.  They 
are  perhaps  most  numerous  on  the  mainland  everywhere  in  suitable 
places,  but  are  also  common  on  the  islands  of  Bering  Sea.  They  are 
known  in  these  northern  haunts  only  in  summer,  when  they  breed 
from  Kadiak  Island  north  to  Point  Barrow. 

The  males  reach  Dawson,  on  the  upper  Yukon,  from  the  5th  to 
18th  of  April,  in  nearly  perfect  breeding-plumage.  There  appears  to 
be  no  spring  molt  of  these  birds,  but  they  obtain  the  breeding-dress 
by  the  wearing  away  of  the  light  edgings  of  the  feathers  of  the 
winter  plumage.  At  the  same  time  remaining  parts  of  the  feathers 
appear  to  become  brighter  and  richer,  as  if  suffused  with  added 
coloring-matter.  There  is  considerable  individual  variation  in  color, 
due  to  a  greater  or  less  intensity  rather  than  to  any  change  in  pattern. 

During  the  last  days  of  April  and  first  of  May,  they  arrive  at  St. 
Michael,  on  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea,  and  are  known  to  reach  southern 
Greenland  at  about  the  same  time.  Murdoch  tells  us  that  they  are 
abundant  in  summer  at  Point  Barrow,  where  they  arrive  about  May 
20;  the  first  eggs  are  laid  early  in  June,  and  the  birds  begin  to 
migrate  southward  the  last  of  August  or  first  of  September.  On  the 
western  Aleutian  Islands  Ball  found  them  to  be  abundant  summer 
residents,  and  discovered  a  nest  with  four  much-incubated  eggs  on 
June  18.  They  leave  these  islands  in  winter;  and  I  may  add  that  I  do 
not  know  of  a  winter  record  from  any  part  of  Alaska. 

68 


During  the  summer  of  1881  I  found  them  nesting  on  St.  Law- 
rence Island,  in  Bering  Sea,  and  on  both  sides  of  Bering  Strait,  but  I 
saw  no  trace  of  them  on  Wrangel  and  Herald  islands.  They  are 
well  known  and  abundant  on  the  Fur  Seal  Islands,  where  they  are 
the  most  beautiful  songsters  among  the  limited  number  of  land-birds 
summering  there.  They  winter  through  parts  of  central  Europe  and 
middle  Asia  to  Japan,  and  through  the  middle-northern  United  States, 
mainly  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  Oregon  and  Washington,  and  some- 
times extend  as  far  south  as  Texas. 

Early  in  May,  the  tundra  on  the  Alaskan  coast  of  Bering  Sea 
is  still  mostly  covered  with  snow,  except  in  grassy  spots  on  southern 
exposures  and  other  favorably  situated  places.  Here  the  first  male 
longspurs  suddenly  appear  in  all  the  beauty  of  their  summer  dress. 
At  this  season,  the  males  are  beautiful  birds,  the  head  and  breast 
being  jet-black  with  white  or  buffy  stripes  back  of  the  eyes,  the  back 
of  the  neck  bright  rufous,  and  the  back  streaked  with  black  and 
brownish.  The  females,  as  usually  among  birds,  are  more  obscurely 
marked,  and  reach  the  breeding-ground  a  little  later  than  the  males. 
They  arrive  on  the  coast  of  Norton  Sound  in  flocks  and  spread  rapidly 
over  their  breeding-ground.  Despite  the  bleak  surroundings  and 
chilling  winds,  they  are  soon  abundant  after  the  first  arrivals,  and 
by  the  middle  of  May  are  in  full  song.  As  if  conscious  of  their  hand- 
some appearance,  the  males  choose  the  tops  of  projecting  tussocks, 
rocks,  or  the  small  knolls  that  alone  break  the  monotonous  surface, 
where  their  bright  colors  render  them  conspicuous. 

The  Lapland  longspur  is  one  of  the  few  birds,  which,  like  the 
skylark  and  the  bobolink,  are  so  filled  with  the  ecstasy  of  life  in  spring 
that  they  must  rise  into  the  air  to  pour  forth  their  joy  in  singing. 
The  males  are  scattered  here  and  there  over  the  tundra  on  their 
chosen  projecting  points,  and  at  frequent  intervals  mount  slowly 
on  tremulous  wings  ten  or  fifteen  yards  into  the  air.  There  they 
pause  a  moment  and  then,  with  wings  up-pointed,  forming  V-shaped 
figures,  they  float  gently  back  to  their  perches,  uttering,  as  they  sink, 
their  liquid  notes,  which  fall  in  tinkling  succession  on  the  ear.  It 
is  an  exquisite,  slightly  jingling  melody,  with  less  power  than  but 
slightly  resembling  the  song  of  the  bobolink.  By  the  last  of  May 
each  eager  songster  has  procured  for  himself  a  mate,  and  they  build 
a  snug  >st,  well  placed  in  the  heart  of  a  sheltering  tussock  or  on  a 
dry  knol1,  in  which  are  placed  from  four  to  seven  eggs.  During  my 
residence  at  St.  Michael  I  examined  many  nests,  and  the  number 
might  readily  have  been  doubled.  One  could  scarcely  walk  about  the 

69 


tundra  for  half  an  hour  during  the  proper  season  without  finding  from 
one  to  half  a  dozen  of  them. 

The  nests  are  usually  built  in  the  driest  parts  of  the  tundra, 
in  a  hummock,  a  tuft  of  grass,  or  perhaps  a  little  bunch  of  dwarf 
willow.  As  one  comes  upon  it  the  female  usually  flutters  off  at  one's 
feet,  and  is  immediately  joined  by  the  male.  Both  ho^ver  about  or 
fly  restlessly  from  tussock  to  tussock,  uttering  protests  at  the  intruder 
as  long  as  he  remains  in  the  vicinity. 

If  the  eggs  are  nearly  ready  to  hatch  the  female  shows  the  great- 
est solicitude,  and  when  the  young  have  hatched  her  anxiety  is 
still  more  pronounced.  In  one  instance  the  female  was  frightened 
from  her  eggs  just  as  they  were  about  to  hatch,  and  ran  along  the 
ground  a  few  yards  uttering  a  plaintive  chee-chee-chee  in  a  fine,  vibrat- 
ing, metallic  tone,  at  the  same  time  dragging  her  outspread  wings 
and  tail  on  the  ground  and  fluttering  as  if  in  mortal  agony. 

The  nests  vary  in  size,  but  average  about  two  and  three-fourths 
inches  in  depth  by  five  inches  across  the  top  on  the  outside;  the  cen- 
tral cavity  is  about  two  inches  deep  and  three  inches  across  the  top. 
The  walls  are  sometimes  thick  and  strong,  composed  of  an  abundance 
of  material,  or  may  be  a  mere  cup-shaped  shell,  barely  sufficient  to 
hold  the  eggs.  The  majority  of  nests  are  composed  of  rather  coarse 
grass,  sometimes  with  moss  interwoven,  forming  a  thick  layer,  which 
was  frequently  found  to  be  as  thoroughly  water-soaked  as  a  wet 
sponge.  The  amount  of  material  used  depends  upon  the  situation ; 
in  damp  places  a  much  greater  amount  is  made  use  of,  while  in  dry 
places  the  nests  are  much  lighter.  Though  the  outer  part  of  the 
nest  is  frequently  formed  of  old  and  often  grimy  or  partly  decayed 
vegetable  matter,  the  interior  invariably  contains  fine,  soft,  yellow 
blades  of  last  year's  grasses.  These,  in  many  instances,  are  unmixed 
with  other  materials,  but  are  sometimes  combined  with  feathers  of 
ptarmigan  or  other  wildfowl.  In  a  few  cases  the  lining  of  the  nests 
examined  by  me  consisted  of  a  warm  cup  of  feathers  inclosed  in  fine 
grass,  and  one  had  a  thick  lining  of  feathers  and  dog's  hair.  Some 
nests  are  so  small  that  they  may  be  inclosed  in  the  hand,  while  others 
can  scarcely  be  inclosed  in  both  hands;  one  of  the  smallest  nests 
might  be  easily  inserted  in  the  cavity  of  a  large  one.  The  largest 
nest  I  found  contained  the  largest  eggs,  and  probably  belonged  to  an 
unusually  large  bird.  The  eggs  are  heavily  covered  with  blotches  and 
zigzag  lines  of  various  shades  of  brown,  and  the  ground-color,  when 
visible,  is  a  light  clay  with  a  pale  greenish  tinge. 

70 


The  partly  fledged  birds,  late  in  June  or  early  in  July,  have  the 
feathers  of  the  crown,  back,  rump,  breast,  and  throat  with  black  or 
very  dark-brown  shaft-lines,  which,  on  the  breast  and  throat,  are 
narrowed  to  about  one-third  the  width  of  the  feather.  On  the  crown 
and  back  the  black  central  markings  occupy  more  than  half  the  width. 
The  feathers  of  the  crown  are  edged  with  a  dingy,  yellowish  buff ; 
those  of  the  nape  with  grayish  or  dull  ashy ;  and  of  the  back  and  rump 
with  a  dingy  yellowish  gray  or  buffy.  There  are  two  indistinct  white 
wing-bars.  The  edges  of  the  breast-feathers  are  yellowish,  with  a 
wash  of  the  same  on  the  feathers  of  the  entire  under  surface.  This 
state  of  plumage  is  scarcely  attained  before  it  begins  to  give  place  to 
the  fall  and  winter  dress  with  which  we  are  familiar,  when  the  birds 
come  trooping  down  to  the  northern  United  States  from  the  north 
at  the  commencement  of  winter. 

Beginning  on  the  lower  parts,  the  feathers  are  gradually  molted 
and  replaced,  the  change  extending  slowly  toward  the  bill.  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  the  molt  commences  about  the  tail  and  rump. 
It  begins  late  in  July  or  early  in  August,  at  which  time  the  old  birds 
are  already  far  advanced  in  their  autumnal  change.  Adult  males  were 
found  with  nearly  complete  winter  dress  on  July  22,  and  probably 
some  change  even  earlier  than  this.  They  usually  begin  to  move 
south  before  they  have  fully  molted,  so  that  only  the  comparatively 
few  individuals  that  have  completed  the  molt  in  September  are  found 
in  perfect  winter  dress  on  their  northern  breeding-grounds.  The 
young  are  out  on  the  wing  sometimes  as  early  as  the  1st  of  July, 
but  more  generally  by  the  10th  of  this  month,  from  which  time 
they  unite  in  small  bands,  most  of  them  on  the  open  plains,  but  many 
frequenting  the  vicinity  of  the  trading-posts  and  native  villages. 
They  remain  in  great  abundance  until  the  last  of  August  or  first  of 
September,  when  they  commence  their  straggling  departure  for  the 
South.  While  in  the  neighborhood  of  houses,  they  are  extremely 
heedless  of  the  presence  of  people,  and  are  nearly  as  familiar  as  are  the 
English  sparrows  in  our  cities.  By  the  first  of  October,  the  last  one 
has  passed  away  southward. 

In  winter  and  early  spring  the  longspurs  are  very  common  over 
the  prairie-lands  of  the  upper  half  of  the  Mississippi  River  Valley, 
and  thence  west  to  Oregon  and  Washington. 


71 


INDEX 


Auks  and  Auklets 1 1,  33,  45,  53 

Birds  from  Siberia 27 

Blackbird,   Rusty    14,  22 

Butcher   Birds    25 

Chickadee    37 

Cormorants    12,  46 

Crossbills    15,22 

Crows 14 

Curlews    62 

Dipper    29 

Ducks    12,  16,  29,  40,  47 

Eagles 13,18,31 

Eiders 44,47 

Flycatchers    21,36 

Geese    12,  16,  34 

Goose,  Emperor   57 

Grebes  10 

Grosbeak,  Pine  22 

Grouse  17,  30 

Gulls  and  Jregers   11,  44,  46 

Hawks    13,  18,  48 

Hummingbird   20,  34 

Jay,   Canada   14,  21,  28 

Kingfisher  14,  20 

Kinglet,  Golden-crowned   16 

Longspur,  Lapland    35,  36,  68 

Loons   10,  43 

Magpie 14 

Nutcracker    .  .  14 


Owls   13,19,31,37,48 

Oyster-catcher 12,  47 

Petrel,   Fork-tailed    29 

Phalaropes    40,  47 

Phoebe   21 

Plovers    27,39 

Ptarmigans    17,  30,  42,  48,  64 

Puffin,  Tufted   49 

Raven    14,22,31,48 

Redpolls    23,34,35 

Robins    25,36 

Sandpipers    39,  40,  45 

Sea-parrot  45 

Shore-birds 12,17 

Snowbirds  23,  24 

Solitaire,  Townsend's    25 

Sparrows    15,  23,  24,  25,  33,  35,  41 

Swallows   15,24,35,41 

Swan,  Whistling 17 

Teals  27,47 

Thrushes 16,25 

Turnstones   36,  45,  47 

Wagtail,  Yellow   36 

Warblers   15,  25,  35,  36 

Water-fowl,  chorus  by 38,  41 

Waxwing,  Northern   24 

Whisky  Jack    21,27 

Woodpeckers  20,  37 

Wren,  Aleutian    .  .  .15,33 


FEDERAL    BIRD -RESERVATIONS   IN    ALASKA,    AS 
INDICATED  ON  THE  MAP  ON  PAGE  9. 

1.  Chamisso  Island.  2.  Bering  Sea  (St.  Matthew  and  Hull  Islands).  3. 
Pribilof  Islands.  4.  Yukon  Delta.  5.  Bogoslof  Islands.  6.  Aleutian  Islands 
(Unimak  to  Attu).  7.  Tuxedni  (Chisik  and  Egg  Islands).  8.  Fire  Island 
(for  moose).  9.  Hazy  Island.  10.  Forrester  Island  (including  Wolf  Rock). 
11.  Saint  Lazaria  (Sitka  Sound).  All  these  have  been  established  by  the 
Government  since  1909.  The  federal  law  relating  to  such  Reservations  says: 
"Whoever  shall  hunt,  trap,  capture,  willfully  disturb,  or  kill  any  bird  of  any 
kind  whatever,  or  take  the  eggs  of  any  such  bird  .  .  .  except  under  such 
rules  and  regulations  as  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  may,  from  time  to  time, 
prescribe,  shall  be  fined  not  more  than  five  rmndred  dollars,  or  imprisoned  not 
more  than  six  months,  or  both." 


72 


\r 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN     INITIAL     FINE     OF     25     CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
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DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


JAN  28  1933 
MAR  31  1S38 


JIM  /C    "* 


26 

ocr  5-59 

Se22'59KAL 


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LD  21-50m-8,<32 


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